Apple is going steady with its AR projects

Apple rarely speaks about its budding ventures and projects. But the rumours and leaks in the virtual world always keep us abreast with what's underway at Cupertino. Just like its self-driving cars, Apple has been quite secretive about its augmented reality efforts but thanks to a Bloomberg report, we have quite a lot to be excited about.

Augmented reality, which overlays images, video and games in the real world seems to be the next big bet of Tim Cook as the company reportedly has “embarked on an ambitious bid to bring the technology to the masses,” including glasses, which are “further down the road,” and some possible iPhone features in the meantime.

Citing an anonymous source, the report says that Apple already has an expert team of its hardware and software veterans supported by talented outsiders that include Fletcher Rothkopf, who worked on the Apple Watch; Tomlinson Holman, who created the audio format THX; and some vets of projects like Facebook’s Oculus and Microsoft’s HoloLens. Apparently, Former Dolby executive Mike Rockwell is leading Apple’s push, reporting to the company’s head of hardware engineering, Dan Riccio.

Besides human power, Apple has been making necessary acquisitions too. In 2015, the company acquired Metaio, which developed AR software. Former Metaio CEO Thomas Alt now works on Apple's strategic deals team, which decides which technologies to invest in. Last year, Apple also bought FlyBy Media, which makes AR-related camera software.

Reportedly, Tim Cook even paid a visit to another secretive tech company Magic Leap last summer, but neither has corroborated on this. Though AR Glasses is surely something to look forward too but in the short term, what's interesting is how Apple introduces AR features in the iPhone, one of which could be the "ability to take a picture and then change the depth of the photograph or the depth of specific objects in the picture later.”.

Well, all we can say at the moment is- Cook, We are eagerly awaiting.