According to different online sources, Apple has poached VR experts from companies like Microsoft and Lytro. In addition, key buys of startup companies with expertise in computer vision, VR projection techniques and motion capture helped the American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California to improve their knowhow and reportedly ramp-up their secret team. It is not known yet, if the prototyped VR headsets will be a completely different product or if these will require one of Apple’s existing smart-phone or tablet devices.
This is not the first time Apple tries to step into the virtual reality world. Back when Steve Jobs was CEO of Apple, such a project was eventually scrapped because at that time the existing technology was deemed not to be advanced enough. The news about the secret team built for the VR projects comes as no surprise to analysts. In the past years Apple has filed different VR and AR-related patents and has also posted many job listings in this direction. Last week the company hired Doug Bowman, a renowned 3D interface expert to bolster its VR research.
