Apple secretly prototyping VR headset to rival HoloLens: report

PanARMENIAN.Net - Apple has assembled a large team of experts in virtual and augmented reality and built prototypes of headsets that could one day rival Facebook’s Oculus Rift or Microsoft’s Hololens, as it seeks new sources of growth beyond the iPhone, the Financial Times reports.

The secret research unit includes hundreds of staff from a series of carefully targeted acquisitions, as well as employees poached from companies that are working on next-generation headset technologies including Microsoft and camera start-up Lytro, according to people familiar with the initiative.

The company’s latest acquisition in the area is Flyby Media, an augmented reality start-up that lets mobile devices “see” the world around them. Flyby’s team worked closely with Google in developing software for its 3D positioning technology Project Tango.

Apple has been building prototypes of possible headset configurations for several months.

Apple joins a growing focus in Silicon Valley on VR and AR as companies from Facebook and Google to Microsoft and Samsung eye the next big technology platform.

The news comes after the Financial Times reported that Apple had hired Doug Bowman, a leading VR researcher.

Tim Cook, chief executive, declared earlier this week that the technology had broad appeal. “It is really cool and has some interesting applications,” Cook said, as Apple reported iPhone sales growth had slowed to a halt.

Apple has experimented with virtual-reality headsets in the past. Under co-founder Steve Jobs in the mid-2000s, a small team created prototypes and filed patents on putative devices, before abandoning the idea as the technology was deemed immature.

Some VR patents were revealed early last year, after a series of Apple job advertisements appeared seeking software engineers to “create high performance apps that integrate with virtual reality systems for prototyping and user testing.”