With Apple’s Reality Pro headset closer to being announced, many reports detail how this upcoming mixed-reality headset will work. This time, The Information (via 9to5Mac) says Apple wants people who don’t have experience with coding to create apps using Siri, according to internal demos.
Four people who have worked on the headset say the Reality Pro headset would be an “easy way for users” of the product to “build their own augmented reality apps” by asking the virtual assistant to “scan and import real-world objects into the headset so they can be accurately represented in 3D and behave as they would in real life.”
With the software tools, Apple hopes that even people who don’t know computer code could tell the headset, via the Siri voice assistant, to build an AR app that could then be made available via Apple’s App Store for others to download. The tool, for example, could allow users to build an app with virtual animals moving around a room and over or around real-life objects without the need to design the animal from scratch, program its animations and calculate its movement in a 3D space with obstacles.
Meta already offers a similar feature to its Quest headsets. As already reported, Apple is working on a proper App Store for the Reality Pro headset. This product is rumored to feature an iOS-like interface with the most famous Apple apps, such as Mail, Calendar, and Clock.
The Information report also says Apple wants to emphasize health and wellness as a selling point of the Reality Pro headset.
People familiar with Apple’s content strategy for the headset say Apple executives are emphasizing health and wellness including proposals for AR apps that assist with meditation and exercise. One early AR demo allowed users to sit inside a Zen garden, the four people said.
Another early Apple demo for executives allowed users to walk through the Dr. Seuss book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by blending its fantastical environment with the real world, according to three people familiar with it.
Early this week, Bloomberg reported how this mixed-reality headset would work with eye- and hand-tracking capabilities.
