Table of Contents for 3D Models for furniture software - SketchUp / pCon.planner / furnplan
- What is Apple Vision Pro?
- What does Spatial Computing mean?
- Meaning Advanced Perception
- Apple Vision Pro operation
- Who is the Apple Vision Pro interesting for?
- So, with Mixed Reality, is the Apple Vision Pro revolutionizing the way we work?
- No real sight - all camera and CGI
- 3D Content and Mixed Reality - User and Creator
- FAQ - 3D Artist vs CGI Studio
With the Apple Vision Pro, the Cupertino-based company wants to launch mixed reality glasses on the market in the near future that can also be used without Apple devices. The market launch in the USA is planned for 2024, with a few selected countries to follow. It will be a while before the glasses, which are expected to cost 3,500 US dollars, are available in Germany.
What can Apple Vision Pro do? And what do tools like this mean for the future of CGI?
What is Apple Vision Pro?
If you're expecting glasses for AR, you're wrong. With the Vision, Apple has created what the company itself calls a spatial computer. The Vision Pro is not connected to your iPhone or your Mac so that you can simply see a little more. Instead, the Vision Pro is your new Mac.
The glasses are equipped with their own operating system and process the input from several sensors and cameras, just like what you do with your new spatial computer, via an M2 and an R1 chip. What you do is shown to you via two OLED displays (one for each eye), each with a resolution of just over 4K. This comes pretty close to natural vision. But what exactly are you seeing?
What does Spatial Computing mean?
Spatial computing, also known as spatial computing, is a type of information processing that uses and embeds in the physical world in which we move and interact.
This includes the use of technologies such as augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and 3D computing to create an interface between the digital and physical worlds. In a spatial computing environment, for example, a user can navigate through a virtual landscape or interact with virtual objects as if they were physically present.
Spatial computing can have a variety of applications, including gaming, design, architecture, medicine, education, furniture, home & living and many more. It enables an immersive, interactive experience that goes far beyond what is possible with conventional two-dimensional screens.
Meaning of extended perception
If the Vision Pro is your new Mac, you can think of the room around you as your new display. Because what you do with your computer or the glasses is integrated into the space around you. So you no longer need a display.
And you decide how big you want what you see to be. Multiple screens, panoramas that run around you and fill the entire room - none of this is a problem. The glasses show you images with a spatial depth and size that go beyond the walls of the room you are actually in. Nevertheless, you can still perceive what is going on in the real space around you at all times: you are completely present.
The acoustics are also three-dimensional and take into account the space around you. Sensors try to create as accurate a map as possible of the surfaces, textures and materials around you.
The sound is emitted via small speakers located in the temples of the glasses directly above your ears. The sound is emitted in a targeted manner, but is always individually adjusted to the room conditions. This allows you to hear in three dimensions and always find yourself in the middle of the action.
Unlike headphones with Active Noise Cancellation, you can hear what's going on around you at all times. So you are still responsive and take part in what is happening around you.
We won't go into the technical details here - you can find them elsewhere on the web at any time, for example on the Apple product page.
Apple Vision Pro operation
The Vision Pro doesn't have a keyboard, and you won't find a mouse either. You don't need either to work with this innovative computer. The glasses react to your eye movements.
You can control apps just by fixing your eyes on them. If you now press your fingers together, you select what you are focusing on with your eyes. Swipe, zoom in, zoom out - the gestures work perfectly.
You can easily operate the Vision Pro while lounging on the sofa, sitting at the kitchen table or walking around the room. Thanks to the many integrated sensors and cameras, the device always knows exactly what your eyes and hands are doing.
Who is the Apple Vision Pro interesting for?
At a starting price of 3,500 US dollars, the Apple Vision Pro is not exactly inexpensive. As a nice gadget alongside a desktop, laptop, iPad and iPhone, it's not something you can afford just like that. You have to be convinced of the possibilities offered by this new type of computer.
Applications will initially be more in the area of existing apps and entertainment. Nevertheless, Apple is also planning to work with the Vision Pro. Video meetings, office software, design software - it's all available.
You put on the Vision Pro, press the small button on the top of the frame of the glasses and find yourself in the middle of mixed reality. The menu immediately appears in front of you. It is remarkable that physically pressing the button does not cause the image to wobble. Nothing slips or jerks, the image is absolutely stable.
So, with Mixed Reality, is the Apple Vision Pro revolutionizing the way we work?
Yes and no. First of all, everything doesn't look much different than usual. The apps and their user interfaces look the same as always, they're just in front of you and are as big as you want them to be. There are no apps that are only available here - so far.
And of course it is convenient to look slightly to the right and see the three people from the video meeting via Facetime in a very large format where the sofa is, while at the same time your work screen is visible directly in front of you and you can see the screens of your conversation partners in a fairly large format a little further to the left. That's comfortable.
But what is really new and unusual about it? It was already possible to do this via several (large) screens or other hardware.
No real sight - all camera and CGI
What's really new - and this is where it gets interesting for the CGI/ 3D industry - is that you never really see the room around you. Or your conversation partners in Facetime. You only ever see generated images.
Apple's Vision Pro is made of really heavy, good glass and an aluminum frame. But it is not suitable for looking through, because there are OLED displays in front of your eyes. They are simply not transparent.
What you see is the image that the cameras in the glasses record around you and play on your displays - in real time. The people in the meeting don't see you. They see a persona that Vision Pro has created of you and that shows your facial expressions and gestures. They can't see that you're wearing Vision Pro while you're in a video meeting with them - because the glasses are so big that they can't see your facial features and expressions.
Keyword immersion: You can determine how much of your surroundings are visible behind the various open windows using the Digital Crown. Simply turn it to expand or contract the area of virtual reality. As Siri is integrated, you can also look at the microphone and give voice commands.
So far, there are only a few applications that really take advantage of the Apple Vision Pro. Disney, for example, has created additional content that can be explored with this new computer and ties in with the familiar merchandise. The strengths of immersion are already pretty well exploited here - this has entertainment value.
The Vision Pro can do 3D. The two OLED displays show 3D as it was probably originally intended: the depth and sharpness of the content is incredible. The Vision Pro is equipped with 3D cameras so that corresponding images can also be recorded.
However, these images are static in a certain sense: if you record a scene in front of you, you can change your viewing angle later by tilting your head slightly. But so far this only works on a small scale; you cannot change your viewing angle completely. You can neither move into the scenes nor around to the other side.
3D Content and Mixed Reality - User and Creator
There are two different scenarios when it comes to CGI / 3D and Vision Pro: On the one hand, there is an incredibly hungry, tech-savvy audience that wants to be entertained and enjoys the extreme image brilliance and stability, depth of field and three-dimensional effect of these glasses and wants content for them.
In terms of the digital spatial experience, the Apple Vision Pro is an extremely interesting presence, without question. This naturally leads to the second scenario: someone has to create the content. Because of course it won't just be about the landscape shots from the last vacation or the next James Bond movie when more and more people buy this spatial computer.
Apple is already advertising the device by claiming that the visual content of the Mindfulness app can be extended across the entire room, making relaxation exercises even more effective. These are not images taken with cameras - they are CGI, computer generated images.
What is really new and interesting is not the Apple Vision Pro product, but the approach to mixed reality. The spatial computer, as Apple calls the glasses, is much more intuitive and natural to use than any other computer on the market to date.
The natural feeling of the body is less disturbed, the operation is ergonomic in the deepest sense of the word due to the naturalness of the movements and interactions with the Vision Pro. The transition between real life and virtual reality is so natural that it poses a challenge to CGI/3D. And we are happy to accept it!
Because, and this is the third scenario, the Vision Pro is of course very interesting as a working tool for people who create CGI/3D images. The various features may not revolutionize work with the current software, but they make it much more pleasant.
When the smallest details move from the screen into the room and can be brought to any size without losing their sharpness, it is possible to work in a completely different way. When hand-eye coordination is no longer necessary when working graphically with a mouse or pencil because integrated cameras follow the tiny movements of the pupil, this opens up completely new possibilities.
