Apple bought AR headset development Vrvana for more than 3 billion yen, finally Apple's AR headset appears?

In the past"Developing AR headset"Tim Cook, CEO, said," We are developing AR technology within Apple. "RemarkAlthough it is Apple that I have done, a Canadian startup that will develop a new AR headset "Vrvana"It is reported that it bought it for 30 million dollars (about 3.4 billion yen).

Apple acquired augmented reality headset startup Vrvana for $ 30 M | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2017/11/21/apple-acquires-mixed-reality-headset-startup-vrvana-for-30m/

Apple reportedly acquires Canadian AR headset startup Vrvana for $ 30 M
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/11/21/apple-reportedly-acquires-canadian-ar-headset-startup-vrvana-for-30m

According to information obtained from sources overseas news media TechCrunch, Apple is said to have acquired Canadian AR related startup, Vrvana, for $ 30 million. Apple refuses to comment on this report, but it did not deny the acquisition. In addition, Vrvana employees who worked in Montreal, Canada have already moved to Apple headquarters in California, USA.

Vrvana was developing a headset called "Totem" using technology called "extended reality" developed by combining Augmented Reality (AR) technology and Virtual Reality (VR) technology. According to the official website, Totem can track not only the position of the wearer's head but also the position of the hand of the user to facilitate manipulation of the virtual object by integrating special internal hardware That's right. In addition, it is said that an infrared camera is also used for hand tracking.

With camera and software "6 DoFTracking "and" display the outside picture on OLED (organic EL display) ", so it is not necessary to use exclusive external equipment for tracking other than the headset like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive It is also a point.

Vrvana - Technology to augment our reality


Microsoft's HoloLens uses a method of superimposing images output by computers on a transparent glass panel, but Vrvana's technology is to synthesize computer graphics into real-time images, It has the advantage that it can seamlessly blend and transfer. Vrvana's Bertrand Nepve CEO stated that it is developing a prototype with a delay of 3 milliseconds, saying "Latency can be a problem" on terminals like Totem.

In November of 2017, Apple is developing an AR headset "T288" capable of standalone operation and OS "rOS" for AR headset, and it is reported that it is aiming to commercialize in 2020.

It is reported that Apple is developing a completely new "AR headset" - GIGAZINE


Apple has not commented on a series of reports at all, but as Apple has released the most advanced AR application development support framework "ARKit" on iOS 11, for example, Apple is focusing on AR related technology clear.

In addition, CEO Cook said in October, 2017, "There are leaks from rumors and stakeholders, but we do not disclose what we are working on right now, but at the present time AR It is possible to say that there is no technology in the market that can offer "" AR is pressing the necessity to put enough things around display technology and face, but there is a big problem there I answered in the interview and it is fully conceivable that I bought Vrvana as the first step to solve these problems.