In the battle for the virtual world, Apple has now hired a virtual reality expert. Doug Bowman is a former computer science professor at Virginia Tech. Bowman is an expert in full virtual reality and augmented reality.
With this, Apple seems to be preparing to catch up with Facebook, Alphabet, Microsoft and Samsung, writes the Financial Times. Bowman recently joined Apple after taking a sabbatical. Before his gap year, he was director of the Virginia Tech Center for Human-Computer Interaction.
Bowman’s experience includes virtual reality where the user is completely immersed in the experience, such as with closed VR glasses and accompanying sound experience, similar to an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or Cardboard design according to Google’s ideas. He was also involved in augmented reality, in which information is placed over the existing environment, such as with Microsoft’s HoloLens or Google Glass.
So far, Apple has filed for some patents for VR headsets for smartphones and has made some acquisitions in the field, including emotion recognition software Emotient, Germany’s Metaio and Swiss motion capture company Faceshift. At the end of last year, Bowman and Virginia Tech were awarded $100,000 by Microsoft for research into the use of the HoloLens.
The market for virtual reality and the like will reach around 80 billion dollars by 2025, according to investment bank Goldman Sachs. It is not clear what Apple’s plans for VR or AR are. The company declined to comment to the FT and has said virtually nothing about any plans.