The battery of Apple’s VR headset is housed in a hip belt that is connected to the headset with a MagSafe cable. That and many more details about the unannounced VR headset are published by tech site The Information.
Previous mock-up: Apple VR headset
The battery gives a battery life of several hours, writes The Information. Users can swap the battery to get more usage time. To isolate users less, the VR headset has a screen on the outside that displays the user’s facial expression. It is a screen with a low refresh rate to save the battery.
That facial recognition works with a camera per eye. Those cameras also work with the software for ‘foveated rendering’, a technique in which what the user is looking at is particularly sharp. That sharp image must come from two micro-OLED screens with a 4k resolution from Sony. Motors adjust the lenses precisely to the pupillary distance of users, while lenses must also be developed for people who wear glasses. Users have a field of view of 120 degrees, slightly more than with the Meta Quest 2 and Pro.
The VR headset contains up to twelve cameras and sensors to monitor the user, including a sensor for a user’s legs. There are also LiDAR scanners to map the environment. Those cameras are largely hidden so as not to disturb the design.
The headset is made of aluminum, glass and carbon fiber to make the headset as light as possible. There is a Digital Crown on the headset, just like on the Apple Watch and Airpods Max. This makes it possible to switch between VR and camera image of the real world. Bluetooth headsets don’t work with the VR headset, nor is there a 3.5mm jack for audio. The VR headset is only usable with recent AirPods to enable low latency audio.
The software is mainly aimed at video conferencing and not gaming, claims The Information. For this purpose, the software contains avatars with facial expressions. It is also possible, for example, to show models of, for example, urban planning on a table. It is also possible to run iOS apps in 2D in the software.
Manufacturer Pegatron would have made thousands of test copies last year. More information about the VR headset came out earlier. The rumors about the headset have been going on for a few years now. Apple would like to release the VR headset this year.