Apple quietly working on virtual reality

Apple is planning to foray into the Virtual Reality market. According to a report from Financial Times, Apple is secretly hiring a highly-qualified team of experts to develop Virtual Reality device.

The company has reportedly employed hundreds of employees that were poached from companies that are working on next-generation headset technologies including Microsoft and camera start up Lytro. The team is involved with building prototypes of headsets for months, the report says. 

The report further adds that Apple has acquired Flyby Media an augmented reality start-up that lets mobile devices see the world around them. The report comes after, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that VR is really cool and has some interesting applications during Apple's Earnings Call

Earlier this week, the same publication reported that Doug Bowman, one of the top U.S reserachers in Virtual reality had joined the Apple team. Bowman's academic profile says that he focused his research on “three-dimensional user interface design and the benefits of immersion in virtual environments”. 

Apple has experimented with VR in the past under co-founder Steve Jobs. In mid-2000, a small team created prototypes and filed patents, before abandoning the idea as the technology was immature.  Last year, Apple was granted patent for virtual reality headset for iPhone. The company has also been involved in a series of acquisitions of companies related to virtual and augmented reality.

The patent detailed a head-mounted portable device that an iPhone can be inserted into, to display VR images. It included a remote control to enable users to change screen content while wearing the VR headset.

If the report is true, Apple will be joining other players in the Virtual reality market including (Cardboard), Facebook (Oculus Rift), Samsung (Gear VR), Microsoft (Hololens), HTC (Vive), which is still in its nascent stages.

Via

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative