VR and AR in 2024: Apple, Samsung, Google, Meta, AI, and a quest for function

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Speaker 1: VR and AR and the future. I feel like I've talked about this before, but we are once again at the beginning of a new year, 2024, and I feel like at the moment it's one of the most interesting periods that we've had in at least a decade. Speaker 1: First of all, apple [00:00:30] has the Vision Pro coming. So we already know about this product. Apple has already laid its cards down and I've already demoed this headset three times in the year 2023, but it's rare for Apple to talk about a product in advance and actually much more even have people try it out and put it on their face. The Vision Pro is going to be looming throughout all of 2024 as one of the biggest products in this landscape, so that's why I'm leading off with it. Vision Pro is a very expensive VR and AR headset [00:01:00] that is $3,500, which is a ton of money, but has really nice display at external camera quality, the ability to mix reality to seem like the virtual and real worlds are intertwined, and I think it's going to have a big impact on where other headsets are going. Speaker 1: But that gets to one of the most interesting things that I got to do in 2023 with vr, which is Get Fit. So I had very high blood pressure this year and I was hospitalized from it, and it really set me on a completely different trajectory [00:01:30] where I had to learn how to get healthy again and how to really up my cardio. So I started using stuff that I hadn't been using before, specifically Supernatural on the Quest because a friend talked me into it and I finally got myself going with it. And it made me realize once again, that fitness in VR is spectacular and it really is something that I'm using a ton and a lot of people already know that, but not maybe enough. And I think that that is one thing that really succeeds about VR that shows its [00:02:00] function, and I think function is the theme going forward. Speaker 1: I mean, VR has been amazing and wild, but there are some things that actually can do, first of all, it getting fit or playing really cool games. What else? And I think that's where Apple and also Samsung and Google are going to start laying some groundwork. Can it be a full computer for you? Now we've seen things like work on extra monitors in VR and that's already available on Quest. Apple's going to go the full distance with Vision [00:02:30] Pro and make it an iOS computer running all of the apps and services that you want. Will that feel useful? Will it feel like something that really could slip in and become a computer for you or is it going to ease the transition? And is Google going to do that too with Samsung? Their mixed reality device, which we're expecting to be announced or released in 2024, should incorporate similar ideas for using Google services, and that could start opening the door for all sorts of new apps. Speaker 1: App developers [00:03:00] could start filling this landscape with all sorts of new ideas that we've not seen before. And that would happen when you have companies like Apple, Samsung, and Google all throwing their hats in the ring trying to come up with some new stuff. And that's not even counting Meta who's still there with the Quest three, and there may even be a new version of the Quest three in 2024 and at that lower price and with all the developers there, it may also help spark new ideas for meta and let them rethink the ways in which that headset is being used [00:03:30] and is being designed and mixed reality. You're going to hear about that a lot more right now. The Quest three already does mixed reality and Apple's Vision Pro relies on mixed reality through mixing the cameras and the real world. That's a standin for what people think will happen with glasses down the road where you're eventually going to have these AR glasses that might blend the worlds that you see virtually and real together. Speaker 1: In the meantime, that'll happen on larger chunkier VR headsets or ones that have mixed reality capabilities. And in 2024, we're [00:04:00] finally going to start seeing more of those headsets really show off apps that can make the most of them. There. Also gets into something else, which we've obviously heard a ton about in 2023, and that's ai. Now, AI has been everywhere, but AI also could play a really big role in headsets. It already does play a role in terms of the way it interprets our perceptual data in terms of the way it aligns, how we track and move with what's in the headset, but there's even more that it could do. Generative AI is already starting to spread up in a couple of VR apps and in [00:04:30] AR could be the way that we start accessing things and pulling up graphic information on the fly. Speaker 1: Meta is also seeing ai, and they're not the only company that is looking at AI as a really important part of how we use Future Smart Glasses as kind of a smart assistant to blend perceptual data with voice commands and really act as a seeing and listening assistant. I've already gotten to try one taste of that in 2023 at the end of this year wearing Metis RayBan Smart Glasses, [00:05:00] which have just gotten a push for a new experimental early access AI update that can see what I see through the glasses. They just take a photo and analyze everything in the world and can actually recognize objects and identify things. Now, some of the functions are pretty limited so far, but much like Humane's AI pin, it's the beginning of seeing eye cameras that could start having AI functionality. Now that could matter, not just for glasses, but for anything that has cameras like a VR headset. Speaker 1: And I think it will start allowing all sorts [00:05:30] of interesting functions in these headsets going forward. But that gets back to what again, I think is the most important thing that we're going to see in VR and ar and even smart glasses is function, striving for function. What do you actually do with these things and what is it that you would like to do that these can't do yet? Now I think that we're going to start seeing that in the Quest three. We'll start seeing it with Vision Pro. We'll start seeing it with Samsung's headset, and we'll probably start seeing it more with smart glasses [00:06:00] that seem kind of peripheral, but are becoming more and more a part of our landscape in the real world and in optical shops. I'm very curious about how all of these intersect, and I think it's going to start feeling a lot more real than it's felt even before. But I mean, let's face it, my kid uses VR games, my friends use VR for fitness. VR is already a thing out there, it's just that it may become even more of a thing. If you have questions and comments, please let me know below. And again, thanks for watching and talk to you soon.