According to a new report, Memojis and SharePlay could be essential to the FaceTime experience on Apple’s long-rumored AR/VR headset expected to be released next year.
FaceTime on Apple’s AR/VR headset to support Memojis and SharePlay
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman outlined his expectations from FaceTime in Apple’s mixed-reality headset suggesting it may be centered around Memojis and SharePlay.
I imagine a virtual reality version of FaceTime where you can be in a conference room with dozens of people. Instead of seeing their actual faces, you’ll see 3D versions of them (Memojis). I assume the headset will be able to determine a person’s facial expressions in real time, making the experience fairly lifelike. I would also look for heavy use of SharePlay in the new realityOS, allowing multiple headset wearers to experience music, movies and games together.
realityOS, Apple’s rumored operating system for its upcoming mixed reality headset, recently made a new appearance in App Store upload logs and open source code on Github.
We have covered Apple’s upcoming mixed reality AR/VR headset in detail for some time now and it is all but confirmed to be announced this year. Unless Apple faces an issue with production, we expect to see a mixed-reality headset with two M1-like chips which will power three displays that use OLED technology with 3,000 PPI and Fresnel’s hybrid ultra-short focal length lenses.
The headset is expected to feature hand gesture detection, eye tracking, iris recognition, voice control, skin detection, facial expression detection, and spatial detection for input. Apple is creating the product around short periods of use. It is expected to cost several thousand dollars, however, we would not be surprised if Apple’s pricing is much lower than rumored and surprises everyone.
Apple introduced Memoji as an expansion of Animoji in 2018 allowing users to create an avatar that tracks facial movements. SharePlay was released with iOS 15.1 last year. The feature lets you listen to music or watch a movie or TV show with family or friends.
Gurman also believes issues with the headset’s development will likely push its announcement to WWDC 2023.
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