What you need to know about apple smart glasses

The most notable failed example of AR glasses comes from Google back in 2014. But with an extra nine years under its belt and armed with the lessons from Google’s failed augmented reality experiment, Apple might just have a fighting chance at bringing the eyewear to the mainstream for the first time. The apple smart glasses could be a futuristic, first-generation wearable product in the pipeline.

Rumours suggested the lenses would launch this year, but with Apple’s 2020 product line fully packed out with the likes of the iPhone 12, Apple Watch 6, and AirPods Studio, it looks less and less likely that Apple will be releasing the AR glasses in the near future.

Apple Glass is expected to run on either Starboard or glassOS, a proprietary operating system uncovered in the final version of iOS 13. The augmented reality framework shows up multiple times in code and text documents, meaning Apple is likely testing activation and application.

Expected release

Apple smart glasses are coming in 2023 at the earliest, according to a report from Bloomberg, but an Apple VR headset positioned to compete with the Oculus Rift 2 is closer to launch.

Other sources corroborate this timeline, as according to TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple Glass won’t be ready to ship until 2022 “at the earliest.” He recently tweeted that he doesn’t believe Apple Glass will be available this year at the company’s September event. Instead, he thinks they’ll roll out in 2022. However, a presentation shown internally at Apple and leaked to The Information sets the launch date as 2023, as Bloomberg suggested.

However, take these predictions with a pinch of salt, since Jon Prosser, a reputable Apple leaker, says Apple Glasses could come sooner than we thought. Prosser believes the launch is aimed for “March-June 2021.”

Prosser also says the company will announce Apple Glass before it’s ready to ship, much like it waited several months to sell the first-generation Apple Watch after its debut. Apple allegedly wants members of the media present for the unveiling, so they may wait until in-person tech events resume.

The company could plan to unveil the lenses as a “one more thing” announcement at its annual fall keynote, according to Prosser.

As of July, The Information reported that Apple Glass lenses had passed the prototype stage and entered trial production, an important milestone in bringing Apple’s wearable device to market.

What features will Apple glass have?

Think of Apple Glass as a companion to your iPhone; smartphones are already a second screen in some scenarios, so the eyeglasses might be considered your third screen, bringing information from your phone right to your eyes.

According to a Bloomberg report, the lenses will have a holographic display. Through those lenses, Apple Glass will show anything from texts, to emails, to maps, or games in the wearer’s field of vision (FOV).

Multiple reports suggest that Apple is considering creating a fully separate App Store for the headset, as well as a special operating system, likely called glassOS. This falls in line with the Apple Watch and watchOS, as well as Apple TV and tvOS.

Then there are two Apple patents from June that suggest the company is working on an optical vision correction system, meaning that the smart glasses will eliminate the need for prescription lenses or contacts. The system will address everything from astigmatism to farsightedness and nearsightedness, according to Patently Apple, which first spotted the patents.

Another patent explains how the Apple Glass user interface might work, describing a system wherein users can “touch” an option in their virtual world. Infrared heat can detect when and where the user has touched a real-life object, according to the patent, which could allow the glasses to project controls onto those items.

So, picture yourself looking at your television, for instance, and then seeing a virtual menu of options pop up over the top of it, allowing you to change the input, turn up the volume, or toggle the whole thing on and off.

Specifications

In short, nobody truly knows the exact specifications yet. But gear review sites like Tom’s Guide have made some speculations based on the state-of-the-art smart glasses, like Microsoft’s Hololens 2. For one thing, the glasses will probably have at least the same field-of-view as the Hololens 2, coming in at 52 degrees of vision, as well as a 47 pixels-per-inch resolution.

If Apple Glass plans to pursue true augmented reality, rather than purely showing floating 2D notifications in the lenses, they’ll probably require some connectivity to the iPhone. That way, the iPhone can do the actual video processing, keeping the onboard computing to a minimum in the glasses themselves, much like the early models of the Apple Watch.

The iPhone could send back 3D imagery to the lenses at a high frame rate per second. Bluetooth wouldn’t make sense in that situation, because these bandwidths are too high for it to handle.

Battery life should probably be a minimum of three hours if Apple wants to be neck-and-neck competitive with the HoloLens 2 or Magic Leap 1. There’s always the possibility that Apple could extend that battery life with a special glasses charging case, similar to what the company has done with AirPods, thereby extending the battery life in a sense.

Appearance

According to Tom’s Guide, Apple Glass marketing materials suggest that the spectacles will give off a Clark Kent-like vibe, but the prototypes reportedly look like a pair of plastic frames.

There’s a lidar scanner on the right side, most likely to help scan your surrounding environment to aid the overlaying of 3D images in a realistic manner, but so far no cameras.

Apparently, there are no plans to make the first run of Apple Glass in various tinted varieties, so if you are looking for transition lenses or prescription sunglasses, you’ll have to wait even longer. But like the iPhone, there’s reason to believe you’ll see more choices over time.

Price

The glasses may cost around £365 at launch, plus the price of any additional prescription that the optical system has to account for. That’s much cheaper than Microsoft’s Hololens 2, which costs a whopping £2563. The low price probably has to do with the fact that there’s no onboard computer required as the iPhone will likely handle that.