Apple said to have built a massive team for virtual reality research
- jan
- 29
Apple is reportedly deep into research into possible virtual and augmented reality initiative, and is said to have a large team exploring potential products in those fields. That team is said to consist of hundreds of staff, and has apparently been working on headset prototypes for several months.
From Financial Times:
The secret research unit includes hundreds of staff from a series of carefully targeted acquisitions, as well as employees poached from companies that are working on next-generation headset technologies including Microsoft and camera start-up Lytro, according to people familiar with the initiative.
Apple also recently acquired Fly-by Media, an augmented reality company that previously helped 3D positioning technology for Google's Project Tango depth-sensing devices. Fly-by's technology can be used to essentially allow mobile devices see the world around them. Apple also recently hired Doug Bowman, a top virtual reality researcher.
Apple has apparently made previously made explorations into VR. Late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs apparently assigned a team to explore the technology in the early 2000s, but it was deemed immature. More recently, on Apple's latest earnings call current CEO Tim Cook said that VR was "really cool, and has some interesting applications."
There is no word yet on a possible timeline for any sort of VR product from Apple.
Source: Financial Times
