Apple working on AR headset for 2020 – report

Augmented reality (AR) is on everyone’s lips this year, as the technology experiences a resurgence of sorts. Now, a new report claims Apple is working on an AR headset of its own.

Bloomberg, citing “people familiar with the situation”, says Apple is hoping to have the tech ready by 2019, with a view to shipping a full-fledged product in 2020.

It’s claimed that the new headset would have its own display (presumably akin to Google Glass) and run on a new chipset and operating system. The latter is apparently called “rOS” for now, or “reality operating system”, being based on iOS.

Apple’s AR team is working on a few projects under the “umbrella codename” of T288, Bloomberg writes, adding that ARKit was the team’s first major release.

The company published its ARKit development platform earlier this year. The platform brings more sophisticated AR functionality to recent iPhones (such as object tracking), being a step above traditional AR efforts.

Google has dabbled with advanced AR too, with its years-old Project Tango initiative requiring phones with additional cameras and depth sensors. But in the wake of Apple’s ARKit release, the Mountain View company followed with the ARCore developer suite, bringing complex VR to traditional Android phones.