The industry sees Apple MR: Benchmark-level vision can replace all screens, and "spatial computing" avoids talking about metaverse

Source: The Paper

Reporter Wu Tianyi

·This is the first product on the market that uses a Micro OLED screen to achieve binocular 8K effects. 4K per eye has pushed the resolution to the limit that the current industry can achieve, which is almost a ceiling. Being able to read text clearly means that in Vision Pro, the screens of all other electronic products can be replaced.

"Apple's avoidance of the word metaverse is not only out of self-confidence and not following the trend, but more importantly, it is a value-oriented consideration. Apple does not want people to live in a virtual space. The future of mankind is undoubtedly The higher the degree of digitization, the more so, the more rare and precious the real will be.”

At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) held on June 5 local time, Apple brought an impressive MR (mixed reality) device Apple Vision Pro, which has functions such as Eyesight and hand-eye control. Apple CEO Tim Cook (Tim Cook) said in his keynote speech, "Apple Vision Pro brings us into the era of spatial computing."

"The entry of a company like Apple will undoubtedly bring a key inflection point to the industry. It may usher in the activation of multiple links in the industry such as product form, content ecology, consumer application scenarios, and industrial chain, and achieve breakthroughs in public perception." YVR Chief Marketing Officer Zhu Ran told The Paper (

Apple seemed to go out of its way to avoid mentioning the concepts of artificial intelligence (AI) and the metaverse at the conference. For example, the "Eyesight" perspective function is equipped on the outside of the headset, which is actually a 3D avatar of the user's face, which is generated by scanning the face. According to industry insiders, this function is realized through machine learning, but Apple keeps silent about AI. talk. Zhang Xiaojun, the founder of Vision + AR, also told The Paper: "Apple has never mentioned the metaverse. The concept of a pure virtual world does not conform to Apple's aesthetics. The form of MR is also trying to prevent users from entering the closed virtual world. The emergence of Eyesight is In order not to let people immerse themselves in their own world alone."

Apple's headset is equipped with the "Eyesight" perspective function, which is actually a 3D avatar of the user's face, and also reflects the concept of preventing users from entering a closed virtual world.

Give the industry a booster

Many technology practitioners and futurists believe that the way of human interaction will change from 2D interaction to more efficient 3D interaction. 3D visual interaction systems depend on the development of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR), collectively known as "extended reality" (XR).

"Before the release of Apple's MR equipment, the XR (extended reality) industry has entered a low period." Zhang Xiaojun said that for a long time, the industry has been difficult to be taken seriously, and consumers mainly regard it as a way to play casual games , rather than electronic equipment necessary for daily life, which is also related to the hardware and immature ecology of the XR industry.

Chen Ming, chief operating officer of YVR, also said in an interview with Pengpai Technology that the reason why VR technology has fallen into a trough is because manufacturers have hurriedly dispersed after following suit, overestimated the short-term level of VR, and underestimated its long-term development and perfect potential. ability.

Apple's entry into AR has obviously given the industry a "boosting shot". As one of the companies with the most technical strength, innovation ability and brand appeal in the world, Apple has "beat" its peers in all aspects with Vision Pro. "The development of the AR industry was limited in the past. The essence was that the products were not good enough. For example, there was a screen effect after wearing them. The content was not good enough, and it would definitely be unsalable. But Apple's products this time, just judging from the promotional videos, can be called It's perfect." Zhang Xiaojun said.

Zhu Ran also believes that "Vision Pro can definitely be regarded as an experimental product that breaks the rules and will bring positive impetus to the industry."

Some industry insiders question whether Apple's MR equipment will squeeze the development space of other manufacturers, and several interviewees think it will not. "The first reaction is that it will be squeezed, because Apple is better in all aspects, and everyone will choose Apple." Zhang Xiaojun said, "Later, I don't think so, because it may be a matter of market positioning and price range in essence. The product is a cheap substitute product, not a product that competes with it (Apple) in the same quality, so from this perspective, the market positioning of the product is quite different, but it may be a promotion.”

Very shocking effect

According to several interviewees, the configuration of Vision Pro can be said to have reached the industry benchmark level. In terms of display, the main display of Vision Pro uses Micro OLED, with a single-eye resolution of 4K. This is the first product on the market that uses a Micro OLED screen to achieve binocular 8K effects.

Facts have also proved that the visual experience feedback obtained by ultra-high resolution is generally very positive. Almost all people who have experienced Vision Pro have given quite high evaluations. "Apple's Vision Pro is amazing no matter in terms of hardware parameters, interaction design, or the wide range of application scenarios released at the press conference." Li Pengpeng, Unity China XR Technical Director, told The Paper. Unity has become the native partner of VisionOS announced by Apple at this conference.

Most of the VR products currently on the market, due to cost considerations, mostly adopt the form of LCD or Mini LED backlight + LCD. The advantages are obvious, such as low cost, high yield and mature mass production, but the disadvantages are also obvious, such as brightness, ppi, contrast and color. Domain and other parameters are also lower. The prices of Quest 2 and PICO 4 are all between RMB 2,000-3,000, while the price of a single Micro OLED screen has reached hundreds or even hundreds of dollars.

It is understood that Apple's Mirco OLED is fully customized, with a size of 1.42 inches, which is currently the largest Micro OLED screen. According to relevant screen practitioners, the yield rate of the two Micro OLED screens equipped by Apple this time is only 20%, which is one of the reasons for the high price of its MR equipment.

4K is one of the key points pointed out by industry insiders. Although 4K is not unfamiliar to consumers, this "4K" is different from the common 4K of audio-visual products. "Single-eye 4K pushes the resolution to the limit that the current industry can achieve, which can give people a very shocking effect. It sounds like 4K is very common, but in the field of VR and AR, 4K is almost a ceiling." Zhang Xiaojun said, "This It is a threshold product, and only 4K can make consumers feel acceptable. 2K will have a screen effect, and it is like entering a video hall in the 1990s.”

"Many people have not noticed that in today's product demonstration, Apple displayed a lot of text content, such as the text in the application, the design of web documents, etc. If it dares to show it, it means that people can see the words clearly when wearing it. , which means that it opens up a very large office scene.” Zhang Xiaojun said that this means that in Vision Pro, the screens of all other electronic products can be replaced.

Apple showed a lot of textual content.

From the point of view of form and technical path, Vision Pro may be more like VR, and achieve MR fusion effect through full-color "Video See Through" (VST for short), but Zhang Xiaojun believes that Vision Pro has the biggest gap with existing VR and AR glasses in the market. The difference lies in two points. "The first is that it achieves 4K display, and the second is that it uses the form of VR glasses to form the effect of AR glasses. These two are directly related to human vision. The current AR products are quite simple, only It can meet some specific needs, and Vision Pro may be a transitional form for Apple to realize ideal AR in the future."

Apple carries the dream of bringing AR to the C side

At the conference, Apple announced a new operating system "VisionOS", which Apple calls "an operating system designed for spatial computing", which can be synchronized with iPhone, iPad and other devices in real time. Judging from the release presentation, VisionOS still maintains Apple's consistent design language. Apple said that the system is "similar to MaOS and iPadOS, and built on decades of engineering innovation."

Zhu Ran said that Vision Pro can take advantage of Apple's own unique ecological advantages, or realize "seamless switching" with other Apple ecological devices, quickly expand the use boundary of MR devices, and provide unlimited imagination for future ecological applications. Integration of more application scenarios. In the long run, Apple's leading position in the content ecology is also expected to attract a large number of content developers to participate in related content creation, so as to greatly optimize the current XR content ecology and experience, promote the continuous prosperity of the entire industry's content ecology, and form a positive trend for the industry. cycle.

For the application scenarios such as "MR + education" and "MR + industry" that Apple hastily brought, Zhang Xiaojun believes that Apple has invested a huge R&D cost in the AR field. "Some of the functions that passed by at the press conference may have undergone countless R&D and innovations." He said, "We who do technology know how many engineers' hard work and how many iterations of versions are behind it. Yes. AR is an industry with very high barriers to entry. It is extremely difficult to do a good job in ecology, hardware, and software at the same time, and to achieve a very good experience. VR and AR glasses currently on the market are also facing similar problems. Only Hardware, without developers, is doomed not to last long."

Regarding AR products, Microsoft, Google, and Apple all have their own technical routes and market positioning. Many domestic companies such as PICO and iQiyi also have related layouts. "Most of them are for the B-end. Strictly speaking, only Meta and Apple Make products for the C-end.” Zhang Xiaojun said, “In fact, Apple carries a dream of bringing AR to the C-end.”

Spatial computing is a value-oriented

At this press conference, Apple also brought a brand new concept: spatial computing, which usually refers to a series of theories, technologies and tools for collecting, acquiring, processing and interacting with three-dimensional multi-modal data.

At present, various Internet giants have different understandings of spatial computing. Some professional practitioners often classify 3D engines or rendering as or even equate them with spatial computing. Zhang Xiaojun said that the essence of spatial computing is to allow computers to understand the physical world, and based on this, seamlessly integrate the real world and the virtual world, including the 6dof (6 degrees of freedom) motion tracking technology with Vio/Slam as the core; /Three-dimensional reconstruction technology of objects/fields; universal VPS (visual positioning) technology, etc.

"In fact, the term spatial computing is neither new nor old. Unlike mobile computing or personal computing, it is a very old term. Spatial computing is a concept that only appeared in the 2000s and 2010s." Zhang Xiaojun said that in the era of mobile Internet , our computation or interaction is limited to between the phone and the person. In the space computing scenario, it is the interaction of three subjects, namely people, equipment, and the physical world.

Zhang Xiaojun believes that spatial computing is firstly an algorithmic technical capability, and secondly, it brings about a new transformation of natural interaction. The change of natural interaction seems simple, but it affects the whole body, because the change of interaction will affect the change of all applications.

Matthew Ball, author of the best-selling book "Metaverse Changes Everything", tweeted during the WWDC conference: "Spatial computing is Apple's way of explaining the 'Metaverse'." But Zhang Xiaojun disagreed, he He believes that spatial computing is a value orientation, and putting reality at the center of the digital world is the core value concept of "spatial computing". "We have mentioned spatial computing for many years and no one cares about it, but now that Apple has mentioned it, it is different. Apple's avoidance of the word metaverse is not only out of self-confidence and not following the trend, but more importantly, it is a kind of Value-oriented considerations. Apple does not want people to live in a virtual space, and the future of human beings will undoubtedly be more and more digitized, and the more so, the more rare and precious the real will be.”