Kuo: Apple’s Mixed Reality Headset Gets Advanced Hand Detection – Update

Apple’s first mixed headset may get advanced hand detection. The headset would get 3D sensors for this, which can recognize different hand gestures, among other things. Apple’s MR headset is expected to be announced next year.

Well-known Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports in an analysis that the mixed reality headset will have four sets of 3D sensors, writes 9to5Mac. This would make the headset’s sensors more accurate than iPhones, which have a single TrueDepth camera for Face ID. The analyst writes that the sensors detect objects and also “dynamic detail changes” of hands, similar to the TrueDepth system that can recognize facial expressions for Animojis. Kuo gives an example of a virtual balloon that flies away after the 3D sensors detect that it is no longer held by the user.

Kuo expects the 3D sensors in Apple’s upcoming headset to also have a higher field-of-view, allowing the headset to detect objects up to 200 percent further away than current TrueDepth sensors. The mixed reality headset would also receive iris recognition, eye tracking and voice control and may also be able to recognize facial expressions. Apple is expected to announce its first headset next year, Kuo predicted earlier. The headset must be able to function standalone and therefore does not have to be connected to an iPhone.

Update, 9:54 AM: Initially, Apple’s upcoming headset was called an “AR headset.” This had to be ‘mixed reality headset’. The article has been adapted accordingly.

Drawing of what the Apple headset might look like based on descriptions from anonymous sources. Source: The Information