Apple VR/AR system

[gounion]

Sorry I haven't been around, I'm busy right now. Might be a few more days before I get involved again. Good things happening, my wife and I are enjoying life.

Just saw the news on the new Apple Virtual Reality/Augmented reality goggles coming in 2024. Very interesting new technology that I would think holds promise. But wow that price tag is too much for me, $3500. Not bloody likely till the price comes down and we see what kind of applications there are.

I have the Quest 2 VR googles, I paid $300 for at Costco a while back. To be honest, I'm not impressed. They're fun to some degree, but not what I expected.

A vendor we had back on the job was changing from printing to training, and they had a system for the Building Trades with VR training for heavy equipment operators, where you sat or stood in an exact mockup of a bulldozer, forklift or a crane or anything like that, the exact brand or model number, but you're in a virtual environment where you can train in all kinds of scenarios, and the seat would rumble and tilt to match. I played in it for a day, having driven forklifts for years. It was very realistic, and a blast. It is a great training tool.

Which is one reason I was underwhelmed with the Quest VR. We'll see what Apple does. Of course, you'll be able to go to an Apple Store and try these out, which is what I'd do before laying that kind of money out.

But I suggest you go to the Apple site and see what they say it's going to be capable of. It is VERY interesting, I must say.

[ProfX]

The "Vision Pro" and the new Vision OS. Yeah, that price tag is hefty. I love Apple kit, but boy, especially with new product lines like this, do they sock you.

But I think they're trying to do something a bit beyond the Oculus Rift. This isn't just for VR gaming, it's really more of an AR headset to be utilized in workplace environments. As you look at things in your environment, it will pull up 'rich' data on them. How much do they weigh, what are they made out of, how can they be used, what can you assemble from them ... It will only be as good as people develop applications for this new space. The potential is amazing and I sure hope people will develop things for it beyond just using it to hunt for Pokemon Go. Sure, training, education ... medicine ... so much COULD be done here.

Like with anything they introduce, the price will come down. Yeah, I might go demo one at an Apple Store when it's out in 2024, who wouldn't. But yeah, I'd wait on purchasing it.

[Number6]

I remember when VR goggles came out in the 90s. There was an arcade I went to and tried on the googles, which were heavy. You could look around, up and down, left to right, and the scene would change. This was early when VR just got going and the figures and scenery and buildings were just lines with no color or depth. VR might become interesting but like you said until the price comes down I'll pass on them.

I learned to drive forklifts and high-lifts (4K, 6K,10K, and 13K articulated forklifts) the old fashion way by climbing in the seat and having a trainer show me the ropes. Once the training session was over I was allowed to move small loads until I could prove I could handle them satisfactorily. I think the funnest forklift to operate was the high-lift. The high-lift was a forklift for a standard sized pallet and you could drive it down the aisle where you had pallet shelving six levels high (about 25 feet). The high-lift would lift and lower the pallet like a regular forklift but unlike a regular forklift you could turn the forks 90 degrees left or right and then move the pallet onto the shelf. The closed cab of the high-lift would rise up higher than the forks. When the cab was raised the speed of the high-lift was reduced. I used to have fun with my troops when they operated the high-lift by having them take the cab and forks as high as they could and then to lower both while doing forward. You had three different perceived movements (cab going down, seeing the forks going down, and the high-lift moving forward) messed with your senses. It wasn't dangerous but it was just a weird sensation.

[ZoWie]

It's probably at some point going to be good for training race drivers. They already spend a lot of time on simulators, and presumably better simulations are coming.

I personally don't want an entire city full of people stumbling around the streets with headsets on. I am weird, therefore I see it as the next step toward the state of total solipsism that's been predicted in unpleasant SF stories for a century now.

[ap215]

Yeah $3500 is too steep of a price they should bring that down soon.

[ZoWie]

The Chinese will do their usual magic, and similar gear will appear on Amazon for under a grand. Perhaps way under. You shouldn't listen to me on the tech subject. I was around at the start and I had a silly idea that maybe this time we could bypass the media/industrial complex and actually make people's lives better. We didn't, and now I'm in tail between legs mode. It kind of ruins my attitude on the subject.

[gounion]

The Chinese will do their usual magic, and similar gear will appear on Amazon for under a grand. Perhaps way under. You shouldn't listen to me on the tech subject. I was around at the start and I had a silly idea that maybe this time we could bypass the media/industrial complex and actually make people's lives better. We didn't, and now I'm in tail between legs mode. It kind of ruins my attitude on the subject.

Maybe not. Apple is bragging that they've made over 500 patents in developing these headsets. That would make it harder for other companies to match what Apple is doing.

[ZoWie]

Patents never stopped Chinese imitators yet. The radio field is full of $3 million custom systems for the military sold by defense contractors, and $1500 mass-produced systems that do essentially the same thing, but not as well or for as long, sold from PO boxes that trace to Chinese companies you've never heard of.

[gounion]

Patents never stopped Chinese imitators yet. The radio field is full of $3 million custom systems for the military sold by defense contractors, and $1500 mass-produced systems that do essentially the same thing, but not as well or for as long, sold from PO boxes that trace to Chinese companies you've never heard of.

Yeah, but this is APPLE. They're very good at being quite litigious on their patents. They may sell them in China, but they won't get them on the mass market in the USA. And Apple's very good at keeping everything tied into the Apple Store, so you won't be able to get the software for anything but the Apple products. You sure can't get a knockoff Apple phone and make it work with IOS and the Apple store. Most of the fakes are Android that try to look like IOS.

[ZoWie]

IOS and MacOS are Apple, yes, they've protected their closed architecture as well as anyone could. That's probably why their stock is up again. We never panicked and sold all of ours in the last dip, no matter how many times we were advised to by talking heads on TV. We still get the dividends, the value is still way higher than when we bought in, and we're happy.

It's not always that simple. People come up with knockoffs that don't look as good or work as well, but they are cheaper and often do the same things. They've done some amazing things with Linux based systems. It might never be as slick as what Apple comes up with, and if you want the best you'll go with the real thing, but it's there, and at real bargain prices.

[gounion]

IOS and MacOS are Apple, yes, they've protected their closed architecture as well as anyone could. That's probably why their stock is up again. We never panicked and sold all of ours in the last dip, no matter how many times we were advised to by talking heads on TV. We still get the dividends, the value is still way higher than when we bought in, and we're happy.

It's not always that simple. People come up with knockoffs that don't look as good or work as well, but they are cheaper and often do the same things. They've done some amazing things with Linux based systems. It might never be as slick as what Apple comes up with, and if you want the best you'll go with the real thing, but it's there, and at real bargain prices.

Agreed. But if Apple has made over 500 patents in developing this, it may be very difficult. I’ve got a Quest 2 VR system, and I can’t say I’m overwhelmed by it. It’s just not that good. I was expecting far more.

[ZoWie]

Art continues to raise its fist, however ineffectively, at our culture's current infatuation with machines as the creators rather than the tools.

Playing soldier or race driver or fighter or whatever while wearing silly goggles is something the individual must decide for themselves whether it's worth spending some or all of their time on. I make no judgments there.

What I'm on about is what happens when people are really dumb enough to think that machines can do the creative work and all we have to do is execute commerce with it. If that happens, humans are on a one way road to extinction.