Carbon Chemist

Tag: augmented reality

  • I Spent an Hour in Marvel’s Apple Vision Pro ‘What If…?’ Experience. I’m Still Not Sure Why

    I Spent an Hour in Marvel’s Apple Vision Pro ‘What If…?’ Experience. I’m Still Not Sure Why

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    On its surface, Marvel’s new “immersive story” What If…?, available to Apple Vision Pro users starting Thursday, seems like a win-win. Marvel gets to mess around with how to combine storytelling and spatial computing, and Apple gets a big-name experience to appease everyone who ponied up $3,500 for their new piece of tech.

    But having recently spent an hour or so in Vision Pro’s What If…? universe, I’m not actually sure if it’s a win for anyone outside of the big companies backing it. While it’s initially intriguing and visually complex, the more time you spend within it, the flimsier the experience becomes.

    There are great things about the Apple Vision Pro—the see-through display, for instance, or the way it seems to seamlessly track your eye movements. Marvel clearly makes the most of those pluses in What If…?, which pivots off Disney+’s popular animated series about the multiverse to ask what would happen if you, the awkward person in the big headset, were ill-advisedly chosen to harness the power of all six infinity stones. The story finds you hurtling through different dimensions, fighting alongside Marvel heroes and against Marvel villains, all while you’re comfortably seated on your couch.

    Make no mistake, What If…? is a story. All parties involved are taking care to call it that. This seems significant given that it certainly isn’t a game—or if it is, it’s one with a hell of a lot of exposition and not much playability.

    The vast majority of what you’re tasked with as a user involves hand motions: Make a fist with your fingers facing you and you’ve got a Doctor Strange-like shield. Turn your hand and extend it outward, and you’re suddenly able to control objects—literally just infinity stones, for what it’s worth—with telekinesis. You can open portals, alter the fabric of reality, seal “dangerous beings” away, and send energy blasts from your fists. These tricks, though, are all just based on a series of similar, not very engaging movements, all of which I forgot numerous times over the course of my time in the story. (Luckily, I had Apple publicists there to mind and remind me, though even then it was sometimes hard to know what I was supposed to be doing.)

    This lackluster immersion could prove to be a problem. Developed with ILM Immersive, the Lucasfilm interactive studio formerly known as ILMxLab, the What If…? experience is intended to expand Marvel Studios’ work beyond cinemas and Disney+ shows. To, as Walt Disney Studios chief technology officer Jamie Voris puts it, “understand how to tell bigger stories in these new mediums.”

    It’s hard to fathom, though, considering the Vision Pro’s somewhat anemic reception, how big of a deal What If…? could be. The headset needs more experiences, and Marvel’s been looking to move beyond its live-action offerings, but the Vision Pro’s hefty price tag puts the experience out of reach for a lot of fans. Even if it’s free, which it is, What If…? may lack the pizazz necessary to draw people in.

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  • I Rode Saga’s HoloBike and Things Got a Little Weird

    I Rode Saga’s HoloBike and Things Got a Little Weird

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    Matson told me that he finds wearing a headset to be too cumbersome when you’re working out. In particular, parents told him that they can’t check out with VR because they need to know what’s going on around them. However, I prefer to not have any distractions, mainly because I’m horrible at exercise and will take any excuse not to do it.

    High-endurance athletes may find Saga’s offerings a bit slim, too. Matson says the company plans to ship the bikes with three to four trails in the system, each about 20 kilometers long. This is not very many rides, and those rides are not very long. By way of contrast, NordicTrack has an extensive library of rides of all lengths, levels, and programs, which also increase resistance and move up and down as you ride. Other bikes integrate with Zwift, the immensely popular online cycling platform, or collect intensely granular data that allows you to improve your fitness.

    Closeup view of the handle bars and large screen attached to an indoor exercise bike

    Photograph: Saga Holographic

    As of yet, HoloBike doesn’t do any of those things. The augmented technology, however, certainly makes what you’re seeing seem more real. And in some circumstances, not being real is a bonus. If all the trails are virtually generated, I’d love to have the ability to safely traverse places I wouldn’t otherwise go, like the streets of Mumbai, or even something entirely fictional, like a delivery route from Paperboy, or Elliott’s big take-off from E.T.

    It would be cool if there were a possibility for users to design or contribute trails, too. I joked to Matson that they should make some version of a trail that goes all the way around the world, so you could circumnavigate the globe over the course of a year’s worth of rides, only to have him suggest creating a little onscreen pedal boat for when you’re crossing the Atlantic. With the HoloBike, the world really is entirely open and limitless. That’s enormously exciting.

    That being said, the bike’s starting price tag on Kickstarter is $2,599, with expected delivery in the winter of 2024-2025. That’s comparable to other video-enabled stationary exercise bikes, but a lot to shell out for potential. If I’m going to ride a bike, I need something that approximates the feeling of the open road a little more closely, and for a little bit longer.

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  • My Life Outside of the Apple Vision Pro

    My Life Outside of the Apple Vision Pro

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    This has become a pattern: One minute he’s not wearing the headset, and the next he is. The transition would always happen unexpectedly—when I’d leave the room to jump in the shower, do my makeup in the bathroom, or get ready to go out.

    One time, after I finished brushing my teeth before bed, I walked out to the living room to find him sitting on the edge of the couch, staring into the distance with the Vision Pro firmly on his head. He was playing chess. I sat down next to him and watched in silence as he pinched his fingers and moved imaginary chess pieces through the air in multiple directions—left, right, diagonal—slowly pulling back to observe his opponent’s (a computer) next move.

    During similar interactions, I’d always ask, “Can I try?” In an attempt to persuade me to love the Vision Pro as much as he does, he’d always oblige. It’s not that I’m totally against owning my own headset, but I struggle to understand the need for it in its current form. Aside from the outrageous $3,500 price and heavy frame, I know that I’ll never reach for it as much as I do my iPhone, MacBook, or iPad. I’m content with my setup. Besides, shouldn’t that mean one per household is enough if you spend that much? Unfortunately, sharing the experience feels more like a hassle than fun.

    For starters, you have to log in to Guest Mode each time, so I’m forced to go through the 90-second calibration test every time. I also wear glasses. Technically, I’m supposed to buy the prescription Zeiss Optical Inserts. But I refuse to give Apple $150 because of something completely out of my control. It’s also annoying to think that you’d have to spend even more money if you live in a household with multiple people wearing glasses.

    I’ve also never had a problem using other headsets, like the Meta Quest 2, with glasses. And so, out of pure spite, I continue calibrating the Vision Pro with my glasses on anyway. It’s not foolproof—the internal eye-tracking cameras sometimes struggle to pinpoint where my eyes are looking. Some things, like spending time in virtual Mount Hood, watching Spiderman: No Way Home in 3D, and browsing the web on Safari, are easy. But anything that requires more precise eye-tracking, such as navigating visionOS or attempting to play a game, is a struggle.

    A Problem Shared

    When my boyfriend and I wanted to share the experience in any way, shape, or form, we’d try casting content on the TV using AirPlay. Unfortunately, a simple task like watching a movie wasn’t very successful. We tried watching Mean Girls, but because it’s on a streaming service, the content was blacked out on both the Vision Pro and the TV because of copyright.

    Meanwhile, playing a game like Fruit Ninja on the big screen is fun for only so long. Every time we wanted to switch players, we’d have to go back and forth between his profile and Guest Mode. I couldn’t help but think back to how easy this process was with a headset like the Quest 2. A few years back, when my dad, brother, and I played The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners for a few hours together, we simply passed the headset around between the three of us and jumped into the game without having to switch profiles or tinker with the settings. On the Vision Pro, however, my boyfriend and I must’ve played for a total of 10 minutes before the whole experience started to get boring.

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  • Apple Vision Pro Review: A Little Too Far Out

    Apple Vision Pro Review: A Little Too Far Out

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    Worse is when the doorbell goes off while you’re in the Vision Pro and you have to suddenly take it off to run downstairs and answer the door. Contrary to what Apple might want, I find it odd to just keep wearing the headset as I move through my home.

    Just the other day I was installing a smart thermostat and I thought it would be helpful to wear the headset and place the installation’s video walkthrough in a virtual space next to the thermostat so I didn’t have to keep going back to my phone. Then I thought about having to wear the Vision Pro and look through the passthrough screen, which sometimes resembles a 720p display. Oh and the fact that there’s no official YouTube app yet (there is a third-party option). I just watched the video on my phone instead.

    My wife doesn’t like it when I’m wearing the Vision Pro. She says it makes me “very unapproachable,” and even though Apple has a feature called EyeSight that simulates your eyes on the exterior screen of the headset, she says it’s difficult to notice it. When she does, “It feels like I’m looking at your eyes through a screensaver.” I might be enjoying my time in the headset, but it’s isolating for her.

    I can go on and on. It’s surprisingly bulky to stuff in a backpack, not to mention the travel case Apple sells is $199 and adds even more bulk. It’s silly that the Zeiss prescription inserts cost so much, and that there’s no way to set up a second user’s profile in case someone else in the household wants to use it. (There’s just a rudimentary guest mode.) I also don’t love the faint glare on the lens that seems to only appear when you’re watching a movie or show in a dark setting.

    View from behind a grey and white virtual reality headset cushioned area around the eyes and padded strap. Device sits...

    Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

    Most of all, I’m not sure about how Apple is positioning the Vision Pro. Should the future of computing be a bulky headset strapped to our heads that isolates us from the real world? Should I walk around my home capturing spatial video of my dog all the time? Or have conversations with my wife as she stares at my digital eyes? I am sure a loyal Apple and VR fanbase is loving every minute inside the Vision Pro, but I fear the simplest barrier of having to wear a bulky thing on the head is enough to put off the vast majority of consumers.

    Yes, the Vision Pro is very much a first-gen product and one that’s not really intended for the general public—it’s more like a public developer kit. Naturally, components will get smaller, the technology will improve, and hopefully, the price will go down. The hardware is monumental, and the capabilities of the Vision Pro are incredibly impressive. But I think we are quite a ways away from the future Apple is envisioning.

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  • The Apple Vision Pro’s Killer App Is … Kitchen Timers

    The Apple Vision Pro’s Killer App Is … Kitchen Timers

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    It’s why you may see breathless takes about how a Vision Pro lets you pull up a “4K screen” without any reference to how big it is (the actual resolution of this virtual screen would depend on how large you make that display). But that doesn’t matter too much in person, because 60 ppd is not far off the visual acuity of the average person’s vision.

    Based on Apple’s 23 million pixel stat, our best bet is that the Vision Pro has a resolution of around 3280 x 3508 pixels per eye, or total resolution of an epic 6560 x 3508 pixels. That’s mega.

    You know what’s even more impressive? The Apple Vision Pro’s passthrough, the view of your actual surroundings, is not straight trash. GoPros are bad in low light. Mobile phone video is still 95 percent bad in low light. The Meta Quest 3’s passthrough is bad in any light, despite being the best Meta has made. The Vision Pro’s really is not, and the amount of smarts that go into this is likely staggering.

    The Vision Pro outer cameras have to provide 90 fps of image data. The more frames per second required, the harder time a camera will have in lower light. Sure, the passthrough isn’t going to look as good in your moodily lit living room as it does in Marques Brownlee’s clinical studio, but even Joanna Stern’s more relatable kitchen footage isn’t too bad.

    Apple’s engineers deserve all the praise they can get—achieving this stuff even with DSLRs strapped to the front of Vision Pro would be tough enough.

    Fun Is for the Competition, Says Tim

    In classic Apple fashion, however, the company has not embraced the fun with Vision Pro. It is so desperate to convince us that this headset bears almost no relation to “VR headsets” like the Meta Quest 3 and Quest Pro, we’re robbed of big parts of the experience of what is, and should be, the best VR headset ever made.

    There are no announcements of the amazing VR gaming titles made for Quest 3 or PSVR 2 yet, and there’s not even a Netflix app. “Our members will be able to enjoy Netflix on the web browser on the Vision Pro, similar to how they watch Netflix on Macs,” a Netflix spokesperson told us.

    Then there’s Apple’s obsession with prestige hardware. Aluminum, magnesium alloy, and glass are the core materials here, leading to up to 26 percent more weight than a Meta Quest 3. And that doesn’t count the cabled 300-plus-gram battery you’re meant to stash in your back pocket that Apple really doesn’t want you to think about before you hit the checkout.

    It’s as if Apple wants us to believe this hardware is timeless, not something that will seem worthy of a tech heritage museum in five years or so.

    People do actually perform fitness activities with Meta Quest strapped in. But John Gruber of Daring Fireball says it’s a no-go for Vision Pro. “There is no fitness-related marketing angle for Vision Pro,” he wrote. “It’s simply too heavy. No one wants to exert themselves with a 650g device strapped to their face. Someday Apple will make a fitness-suitable Vision headset; this Vision Pro is not it.”

    What are we left with? Apple’s vision for Vision Pro is a narrow, prescriptive one, because it wants us to take its specific leaps forward as a sign of a break from, rather than a continuation of, current VR hardware. That makes sense when Meta is losing billions from its VR division. But it’s still not clear whether there’s enough here to break through the crust of enthused, well-heeled Apple-fan glassholes and into the homes of normal folks.

    But, hey, it’s only a gen-one. And do we still want one? Absolutely, like nothing else in tech right now. How else are we going to keep tabs on our rehydrating pasta?

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