14 Page Deck covering what is known right now about Apple's secretive AR glasses project.

1. 1
Apple&ARWhat we know about Apple’s secretive augmented reality eyewear project.
by Christopher Grayson

2. 2
In Spring of 2015 Apple acquired Metaio, industry
leader in augmented reality software. Then shut
down operations and said nothing … until last
Sunday when former Metaio CEO, Thomas Alt
changed his title to Director of Procurement.
Apple’s Strategic Deals Team, among other things,
is responsible for manufacturing contracts.
This has the appearance of something AR being
prepared for market.
Former Metaio CEO

3. 3
Other Top Hires
NickThompson
Now:
Apple
Engineering Lead
Was:
Microsoft
HoloLens Principal
Audio Hardware
Engineering Lead
Zeyu Li
Now:
Apple
Sr. Computer Vision
Algorithm Engineer
Was:
Magic Leap
Principal Engineer,
Computer Vision
Yury Petrov
Now:
Apple
Research Scientist
Was:
Oculus
Research Scientist
Doug Bowman
Now:
Apple
Bowman’s title is
undisclosed, but
believed to be the
Director of the project.
Was:
VirginiaTech
Director,
Center for
Human-Computer
Interaction

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Notable Acquisitions
Prime Sense
Sensor technology
licensed by Microsoft
for the XBox Kinect.
Flyby Media
Depth mapping
computer vision software
licensed by Google for
use in ProjectTango.
Emotient
Artificial intelligence
computer vision platform
for reading emotions
from facial expressions.
Polar Rose
Face recognition
computer vision
software out of Sweden.
Faceshift
Face tracking, motion
capture software used in
the making of Star Wars:
The Force Awakens.
Metaio
German based industry
leader, augmented
reality computer vision
development platform.

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In 2014 Jony Ive hired Marc Newson into Apple’s
industrial design department.
The Marc Newson Era

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Marc Newson watch designs, Ikepod.
2015 Marc Newson designed eye frames for Safilo.
The Marc Newson Era

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The Apple Watch has Newson’s fingerprints all over it.
AR eyewear will be next.
We know that eyewear is on the way.
The Marc Newson Era

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”
“I think there are some positive points in the product, I think it’s probably more
likely to appeal to certain vertical markets. … I wear glasses because I have to. I
don’t know a lot of people that wear them that don’t have to. They want them to
be light and unobtrusive and reflect their fashion. … I think from a mainstream
point of view [smart glasses] are difficult to see. I think the wrist is interesting.
The wrist is natural.
— Tim Cook, 2014, prior to the Apple Watch launch
“There’s virtual reality and there’s augmented reality -- both of these
are incredibly interesting, but my own view is that augmented reality
is the larger of the two, probably by far.
— Tim Cook, 2016, the week of the iPhone 7 launch
”
Following the same pattern of media hints,
leading up to the reveal of the
Apple Watch.
The Whisper campaign

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”
“It also does show, as you point out, that AR can be really great and we’re— we
have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We are high on AR for the long run.
We think there’s great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity.
So we’re investing, and the number one thing is to make sure our products work
well with other developers kind of products like Pokémon.
— Tim Cook, 2016, Apple’s Q3 earnings call
The Whisper campaign

10. 10
Patent 7,595,759 (Top) is one of Apple’s earliest
originally filed almost a decade ago in January
2007. Apple’s patent filing have been ongoing,
including this year’s Patent 9,383,582 (Bottom).
Apple AR, R&D IP
Apple U.S. Augmented Reality HUD
Patent 7,595,759 (filed in 2007, awarded in 2009)
Apple U.S. Augmented Reality HUD
Patent 9,383,582 (extension filed in 2012, awarded in 2016)

11. 11
Developer Steven Troughton-Smith recently
pointed out that the Apple developer tool,
SceneKit has included buried references to
“HeadMountedDisplayRenderingTechnique”
since iOS 9.
Hiding in plain sight

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I have frequent interactions with entrepreneurs and engineers in the
augmented reality space.
Given Apple’s aggressive poaching of top talent from HoloLens, Oculus,
Magic Leap, etc., it should come as no surprise that others have confided how
Apple is aggressively pursuing engineers to poach from every smart glasses
company in the market.
Anecdotal

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Augmented Reality from Apple Is CoMing.
The only question is when.

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Representation for speaking and AR / VR Market consulting:
For U.S. & The Americas: Emily Voight, +1 512 651 3878
For Europe: Stephen Berry, +44 (0) 20 7147 4709
For Asia: Derrick Hui, +852 2912 0731
For Creative & Design Direction, contact directly at:
Christopher Grayson, +1 917 597 4787
chris@chrisgrayson.com
Christopher Grayson