When Apple unveiled the Apple Vision Pro at WWDC 2023, it paved the way for the future. This headset does mixed reality and functions as a whole computer on its own, making it more than just an AR—VR headset. Due of this, the Vision Pro stands apart from other mixed reality items you may have seen from rival companies. But what is the Vision Pro capable of? We go over every feature of the Apple Vision Pro that you can anticipate if you decide to spend $3,500 on the company's upcoming AR-VR headset. 


What's in Apple Vision Pro: In front of you is an unlimited canvas. 

You are constrained by the physical boundaries of the display in front of you when using conventional smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other technologies. You are therefore constrained to that physical dimension, regardless of whether your phone has a 6-inch display, your laptop has a 13-inch display, or your TV has a 65-inch display. Even if you use display trickery like foldables and rollables do, the apps and media you consume cannot transcend this physicality.

An unlimited canvas is offered by Apple Vision Pro and other AR-VR headsets. The Vision Pro's visionOS liberates media and applications from the constraints of a "display," allowing them to coexist at any scale. Everything in front of you and around you is available to you on the endless amount of screen real estate. 

 

Would you like to have five windows open in front of you? Want to see a movie on a screen that's similar to 100 feet in size? This is possible with the Vision Pro.


The Vision Pro is like having a portable 4K monitor in front of each eye thanks to its 23 million-pixel proprietary micro-OLED display system. Without having to be concerned about physical limitations, you can construct a sizable private workstation in front of you.

Vision Pro gets its visionOS 


Apple's entry into a brand-new product category is the Vision Pro. There is new software in the form of visionOS that powers the Vision Pro hardware.

According to Apple, the visionOS operating system was created from the ground up to support the low-latency specifications of spatial computing. Additionally, there is the support of decades of creativity and experience from creating macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. An OS specifically designed for the headset that makes use of the area surrounding the user is the end result of all this coming together.


A brand-new three-dimensional interface is available with visionOS. It makes it possible for users to interact with digital content as if it were physically present. The user is given a sense of scale and distance by the UX components of visionOS, which react dynamically to natural light and cast shadows.

The main selling point of the Vision Pro is that, in contrast to other AR-VR headsets on the market, it does not require special controls. As a result, visionOS was forced to develop a completely new type of input system that can be operated with the voice, hands, and eyes.


As the headgear tracks the user's eyes, they can browse apps by staring at them. You rest your arms and shoulders in their natural position as you tap your fingers to choose a UX element, such as a button or icon. With a flick of the wrist, you can scroll. Of course, you can also dictate by speaking. You may easily browse the full visionOS ecosystem by combining these basic inputs without feeling lost or out of place.

Apple guarantees that it does not share eye-tracking data with other Apple services, third-party applications, or websites.e.

Vision Pro gets its visionOS App Store


The success and popularity of the iPhone are largely attributable to the App Store, so it was inevitable that Apple would work some of the same magic with the Vision Pro as well. The headset's operating system, called visionOS, includes its own app store.

Third-party developers will create new app experiences that make use of the distinctive features of the Vision Pro headset, and these apps will be available in the visionOS App Store. They will also be reinventing current spatial computing applications and use cases. A huge selection of excellent iPhone and iPad apps that immediately function with the new input paradigm for Vision Pro will also be available in the visionOS App Store.

Environments lets you fade your reality away

Having your reality re-projected in front of you is incredible and helps you stay grounded and remain aware of what is happening around you. But with a twist of the Digital Crown present on the top right surface of the Vision Pro headset, wearers can invoke the Environments feature. Environments are dynamic landscapes that remove you from your physical surroundings and transport you to a digital world. Your surroundings fade out, and you are now present in the middle of a beautiful landscape. This increases immersion and improves focus by reducing distractions and clutter around you.

FaceTime becomes spatial


You may now have far more immersive FaceTime video calls with others because you have a limitless canvas in front of you. Currently, every caller may be seen in life-sized tiles. The Vision Pro will simulate the sensation of having video call participants speak to you in-person from where they are positioned when used with Spatial Audio.

FaceTime is also more versatile. While using the headset for a call, you can view a movie, look through images, or work together on a presentation.

When you wear the Apple Vision Pro, what happens to your video feed? You employ Persona.



Your video stream when utilising FaceTime with an Apple Vision Pro uses a Persona rather than the front-facing camera like it would on an iPhone.

Personas are a computerised portrayal of the headset user. It was produced utilising machine learning techniques from Apple. Personas have the advantage of reflecting hand and face motions in real-time over simple digital avatars.

Spatial Audio adds to the immersion 

The Vision Pro includes a number of spatial audio technologies. Right above each ear, dual-driver audio pods give customised sound without obstructing outside sounds. This is how ambient spatial audio gives the impression that the sound is all around you.


In order to customise and fit the sound to your surroundings, the Apple Vision Pro also uses audio raytracing, which examines the acoustic characteristics of your area (including the actual materials).

The Apple Vision Pro also does Spatial Photo and Video


The first Apple device that can capture 3D images and films is the Vision Pro. The top of the headset has a button that may be used to quickly and easily take spatial images and videos.

The depth of spatial images and videos is greater than that of 2D images and films, bringing the viewer closer to the action. To go even closer to the images and videos, you can enlarge them.

The Apple Vision Pro includes a special trick for panoramas. Panorama images will enlarge in front of you, giving you the impression that you are in the middle of it.

EyeSight informs others when you are around


Since you get isolated from the outside world when wearing a mixed reality headset, you need ways to bring reality back into the picture. The majority of headsets use cameras on the outside of the visor to record your world and reflect it back to you through internal screens that are close to your eyes. However, it still does not explain why you seem to be slightly absent from others around you.

Through EyeSight, Apple Vision Pro provides a solution. Additionally, the interior of the headset has cameras that record your eyes in motion. This footage is then projected onto an external screen on the headset. EyeSight is a feature that lets you return to the present without taking off your headset, and it is Apple's take on the concept.

The outside display will reveal the wearer's eyes when someone approaches them and catches their attention. The wearer will simultaneously be able to see the person outside. When someone is using the Vision Pro headset, this will offer both parties a sense of presence and provide a visual indicator of when they are available to interact.

EyeSight also gives other people a visual cue when a user is taking a spatial image or video.
EyeSight will offer a separate, more obfuscated visual indication to show that the user is focused within the headset and not actively attending to their surroundings when they are not in a state of acute awareness and are engrossed in an environment or utilising an app.

Optic ID is a brand-new authentication system for the Vision Pro


The Apple Vision Pro is primarily intended to be used as a private device, similar to an iPhone, rather than a shared device, like a home tablet. Since both Face ID and Touch ID would be difficult to install on this form factor, Apple needed a new kind of secure authentication that they could utilise on headsets. Optic ID, please.
An authentication system called Optic ID examines a user's iris while subjecting it to multiple invisible LED light exposures. To unlock the Apple Vision Pro, it next compares it to the Optic ID data that has been registered.
Data from Optic ID is completely secured and inaccessible to apps. It never leaves the device, either.