Apple and expert lensmakers Carl Zeiss may be working on a pair of augmented reality glasses, according to post-CES rumours.
Blogger and author Robert Scoble posted the rumour to Facebook after attending the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, calling it “exclusive news”. In the post, he claims: “A Zeiss employee confirmed the rumours that Apple and Carl Zeiss AG are working on a light pair of augmented reality/mixed reality glasses that may be announced this year. (I thought it was next year but now that I saw this I believe it will happen this year).” The “this” he is referring to, is the below photo of Zeiss’ augmented reality booth at CES which, confusingly, exhibited no augmented reality lenses. “And that explains why there was no augmented reality in Zeiss's booth even though it was right in the middle of the AR area,” says Scoble.
Scoble posted the photo to his Facebook page on January 5, with the following comment: “Carl Zeiss is in the AR part of CES. But it is NOT showing off its mixed reality optics. Why not? I said ‘Tim Cook didn't let you’ and the employees around me smiled nervously.” It’s unclear whether that is truly the extent of the tip off, or whether Scoble spoke to an insider in more detail (WIRED has put this question to the blogger and VR/AR enthusiast).
The latest hint at an Apple AR offering follows last November’s rumours that Apple was working on smart glasses that would connect to an iPhone to show images and other information in the field of vision. Sources with knowledge of that project told Bloomberg that the smart glasses may even use augmented reality, though no further technical details were leaked. Apple has reportedly started discussions with suppliers and ordered small quantities of near-eye displays for testing.
If Apple brings the product to market it wouldn’t be released until 2018 at the earliest, Bloomberg claimed, with the company yet to order enough components from suppliers to indicate it is preparing for mass production. Apple declined to comment at the time.
Apple has a raft of patents relating to augmented and virtual reality and CEO Tim Cook has made on-record comments in favour of the technology. In July 2016 he said augmented reality would bring “great things for customers” and was a “great commercial opportunity”. In October Cook went so far as to say AR would one day happen “in a big way". "It will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today.”
Read more: Google Daydream View VR review: lots of style but lacks substance
The challenge Apple faces in developing marketable smart glasses is significant. The most high-profile attempt, Google’s ill-fated Glass experiment, raised major privacy concerns with some early-adopters being labelled “glassholes”.
More recently, Snapchat announced plans to release Spectacles, a $130 (£104) pair of glasses with a built-in video camera for recording and sharing clips. Earlier this month, Snapchat started selling Spectacles from a small clutch of whimsical vending machines in the United States.
But, for the most part, technology firms have been shifting their investment and interest away from Google Glass-like products and towards conventional VR headsets. Google itself recently launched the DayDream VR headset alongside its Pixel smartphone, with Facebook’s Oculus VR, Samsung’s Gear VR and Microsoft’s HoloLens also competing in an increasingly cluttered market.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
