Apple Lays out the next big thing

PrimeSense has been pretty Quiet lately, a couple of years ago they had some patents that mentioned Microvision as a key component of what they'd be doing.

After last week's CC -- the news pretty much makes anything possible -- especially with three different engines that are going to have different applications.

3D Sensing is an essential component of workable AR -- (Microvision has this well in hand.) Also required is a near-eye display with a wide field of view. (Microvision has this too.)

Whether or not Microvision is working with Apple in AR or not, Microvision will be a force to be reckoned with in the field.

Confidence has never been higher.

Tim Cook laid out next big thing (Source) 

Apple needs a new platform. And Apple CEO Tim Cook knows it. That's why he's been dropping hint after hint that Apple's next major technology initiative is augmented reality — basically, integrating software into the real world. 

"It is a visual technology that interprets the world for you," Research Vice President at Gartner Brian Blau told Business Insider. "If you think about augmented reality in that sense, it could be the next big grand computing platform. That has been the long-term promise." 

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The end game of augmented reality is a pair of computer glasses or perhaps a contact lens that can superimpose computer graphics into the real world seamlessly.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has talked about augmented reality essentially every time he's been called on to make public remarks recently. 

"This is something you know it's coming," Piper Jaffray managing director Gene Munster told Business Insider. "The only other times they've talked like this is before the iPhone came out, they started to indicate they could do something in the phone market. Before the Apple Watch came out they talked about wearables and the wrist being a better option."

"It's pretty rare that Apple has been this clear that something is coming," Munster said. 

Here's what Cook is signaling: 

• Adding key AR building blocks, like the ability for a camera to identify objects, into iPhone software and Apple apps in the near future. 
• Adding AR-specific hardware to the iPhone, like a 3D sensor. This could come from Primesense, a company Apple bought in 2013, and would allow the device to understand its surroundings even better than a basic camera. 
• Opening up the platform to developers, so that programmers can make augmented reality apps without dealing with the complicated computer vision and physics algorithms currently being developed by people at Apple and other companies with Ph.Ds.
• Releasing an AR-specific product, perhaps a pair of glasses, when the technology is ready. It will be able to take advantage of all the AR apps already developed for iPhone. 

"AR is related to all Apple’s current businesses; the key is that AR is an innovative human-machine interface that could be used in various devices & applications," KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo wrote in a note distributed to clients last week seen by Business Insider. "All of Apple’s past successes were related to human-machine interfaces."

Primesense mentioned here in 2014

Primesense Microvision link (2014)

Betting on Augmented reality.