It’s the year 2044
A man wakes up, puts on a pair of sleek, modern eyeglasses, and starts his day with a jog. Though he lives in Los Angeles, today he decides to do his run along the Hudson River in Manhattan with the help of his glasses – which are actually a powerful spatial computing device. The sounds of New York City in the morning echo around him. It’s an augmented reality (AR) he’s running through, but one that feels incredibly realistic. It’s as if he’s actually there. Just like the tour of the Roman Colosseum he took last weekend from his living room.
After his run, the man calls into a meeting taking place at his employer’s headquarters in Toronto. But instead of the video calls he might have used in 2024, he appears in the meeting as a realistic hologram. He’s able to navigate the room like any other employee, choose his seat, whisper to the person beside him. And when it’s his turn to present, back in his home in Los Angeles, he accesses and controls his presentation via his glasses. Neither he, nor anyone else in the room, carries a smartphone or uses a desktop anymore. They view everything on an infinite digital canvas via their glasses.
Does this sound impossible? Like it’s from the year 3000?
It’s not guaranteed. But we could be closer to this spatial computing-enabled future than you might think.
After all, we’re talking about twenty full years in the future. An enormous amount will change. How many of us could have imagined the power, utility, and ubiquity of the smartphone way back in 1987 – the same twenty years before Apple introduced the iPhone?
So, yes, spatial computing is a bleeding edge technology, but it may have just had its big bang moment, courtesy of Apple.
What exactly is the Apple Vision Pro and why is it important?
The Apple Vision Pro (AVP) launched in February 2024. It’s a ‘spatial computing’ headset.
The AVP enables its users to engage in both AR and virtual reality (VR) experiences by using their eyes, hands, or voices to command and interact with the device. It helps make someone’s facial expressions look natural to the people they interact with when they’re using it. As a result, a user can stay connected to those around them but also enhance and augment their own experience.
How?
The AVP blends a user’s data, content, and apps and layers them on top of everyday reality. It’s a hint of a ‘mixed reality’ future where the boundaries between digital and physical experiences disappear.
Of course, Apple didn’t invent spatial computing. Spatial computing and AR have been around for years in one form or another. What’s important about the AVP is how it could help make spatial computing more relatable and accessible to people who wouldn’t normally be caught dead wearing AR/VR ‘goggles’.
Spatial computing must deliver seamless, enriching experiences before it will be broadly adopted
Let’s pause for a moment before we get too far ahead of ourselves.
The perfect future is not here – yet. This is just version 1.0 of the AVP, and the device comes with real limitations. It’s expensive ($3500 USD) and has a limited battery life. It’s still heavy for a device meant to be worn on your face and right now it’s not an effective collaboration tool. Plus, it doesn’t have anywhere near the number of custom apps or functionality that a v2.0 or v3.0 will have.
Plus, many people still think it looks kind of dorky.
Ultimately – the AVP is not yet attractive to a broad audience. But because of it, spatial computing is having its coming out party. More people in the general public are now intrigued by it than in the past.
But if we look to our imagined 2044 future, how do we get there?
Two Key Factors
To become ubiquitous, like smartphones, spatial computing experiences must become both seamless and enriching.
The seamlessness will come with time as the form factor of all spatial computing headsets (not just the AVP) evolves from goggles to something resembling the eyeglasses worn by millions of people.
But once the glasses are unobtrusive, lighter, and have greater battery life, you still need to be able to do cool things with them.
You need those enriching experiences.
What might those look like?
How spatial computing could enrich our communal lives
Here’s a prediction: the future of community will be built around augmented reality.
Louis Rosenberg, Ph.D., CEO and Chief Scientist at Unanimous AI and an architect of mixed reality experiences since 1991, told TechTarget that in the future we’ll see the boundaries between virtual worlds and the physical world blur:
“It will be the real world augmented with mixed reality content that seems so authentic and well-integrated into our perceptual framework that it will be perceived as just another part of our reality.
He predicts we will not be talking about our digital lives and our physical lives as separate things. "We will just think about one life, one reality, and it will be a combined world of the real and the virtual," he said.
This means we likely won’t be escaping into purely virtual worlds en masse. Pure VR will still have appeal for some people, but for most of us, we’ll be enhancing the everyday experiences we have right now with spatial computing technology. These experiences will bring us closer to our friends, regardless of where they are. They’ll give us new ways to play, collaborate, and socialize together.
That’s the path forward. If spatial computing headsets can become usable tools for enriching highly practical everyday experiences like shopping, sharing content with friends, getting together on the weekend, and going to events, they can be truly transformative, the same way smartphones have been.
After all, it’s far easier to attract people to a new technology by showing how the device can enhance the things they already love to do rather than giving them a way to escape to a purely virtual world filled with cartoonish avatars and experiences unconnected to their real lives.
A sneak peek into the spatial computing-enabled future of education, healthcare, and entertainment
Education, healthcare, and entertainment are three of the foundational pillars of all of our lives. Spatial computing has the potential to radically change them all.
Education
In many ways, education has been unchanged for decades, but spatial computing could offer immersive learning experiences that better serve and engage students, and fundamentally change the way we learn.
Spatial computing could transport students to environments that simulate real-world scenarios, historical events, and ecosystems. Students could explore ancient civilizations, dissect virtual organisms, or conduct experiments in immersive 3D environments. Augmented reality labs and field trips could become the norm.
Spatial computing could also break down geographical barriers. Future classrooms could include students from countries around the world in real-time – opening up the ability to share knowledge, expand student perspectives, and deepen our collective sense of empathy for people we’ve never met.
Finally, spatial computing could open the doors to more accessible education for students with different learning styles and needs. A mix of visual, auditory, and tactile learning experiences might replace standard teaching techniques. And for those with mobility or sensory issues, spatial computing could offer personalized learning experiences that help level the educational playing field.
Healthcare
Spatial computing can enhance the entire healthcare lifecycle – from training physicians and nurses to enhancing patient experiences and medical procedures. In fact, it’s one of the most promising sectors for spatial computing.
Spatial computing can provide immersive simulations for medical students to learn surgical techniques. It also could alleviate the need for expensive training equipment and, in some cases, cadavers. This could be significant for the perpetually resource-strapped healthcare sector.
Spatial computing can also enhance ‘telemedicine’ by overlaying patient information, diagnostic images, and real-time data into the clinician's field of view. Surgeons can use spatial computing to visualize complex anatomical structures before actually performing a surgery. This can all help reduce patient risks and improve outcomes.
Spatial computing can even streamline workflows by overlaying digital patient records into a doctor’s view during their rounds at a hospital, which could help them make better decisions, faster.
Entertainment
The internet transformed entertainment in countless ways. Distribution was democratized. Content was suddenly available on-demand, all over the world. Everyone became a creator. But this may just be a prelude to what spatial computing will do to the sector.
Live events – including concerts, theatre, and sporting events - could include a mix of virtual elements imposed over physical, ‘real world’ spaces. Events could be attended by anyone from anywhere in the world, with feels-like-you’re-actually-there levels of realism. And if you missed an event? No problem. Relive it the next morning. Or wait until, say, a musician offers a spatial computing-enhanced concert to everyone in the world a few days later. This could change things for artists and businesses just as much as consumers, creating new revenue streams and opportunities to connect with fans.
Gaming could become even more interactive and immersive. Imagine AR environments players can move through, characters they can interact with, and storylines they can influence in new ways.
Travel could completely change. The need to get on a plane to experience Spain or Singapore wouldn’t be necessary. You could do both in a weekend. Museums and other cultural sites could include AR overlays of data, enriching content – and opportunities to buy merchandise. Imagine what an AR-enhanced rollercoaster at a theme park might feel like. If you can’t, no worries. Someone else will soon be working on it.
Spatial computing will also supercharge the creator economy. It will eventually empower users to create and share their own augmented reality content and experiences so others can collaborate and engage with them from anywhere in the world.
Spatial computing headsets may eventually replace laptops, desktops, and tablets – and transform how work is done
And then there’s our work lives.
Spatial computing could also enhance the traditional elements of a laptop or desktop – all in a set of wearable glasses. It could become an enterprise work tool.
Leo Gebbie, principal analyst at CCS Insight covering connected devices, told ComputerWorld that Apple is looking to reimagine the way we work:
“One of the main ways Apple is trying to position the Vision Pro as a headset for work is using it as an extension, or even a replacement, for your traditional desktop PC or laptop.”
A recent TechCrunch article noted that Apple CEO Tim Cook was focused on how spatial computing could also go beyond day-to-day productivity and be applied to “collaborative product design and immersive training. The ability to have a so-called infinite desktop is key to the productivity piece: Users can open multiple programs and move them around a huge palette that gives new meaning to extra screen real estate.”
The Harvard Business Review noted that:
“Business leaders should take note of the Apple Vision Pro not for the device itself, but for the spatial computing capabilities that come with it and the possibilities that may lay ahead for their businesses and products.”
Two Big Caveats
The bridge to this future of work can only be crossed if:
1. The benefits for work environments can be clearly proven out. They will have to drive productivity, efficiency, and provable ROI.
2. Organizations can access spatial computing devices for much, much lower prices than the AVP or any other comparable headset.
These are not small bridges to cross. The bottom line? Consumers will likely adopt spatial computing headsets years before businesses do.
So, what’s the path to this future? Look to the developers (and all the other players in the sector besides Apple).
One of Apple’s immediate goals is to get a critical mass of developers creating apps and experiences for the AVP that will draw in consumers and other general audiences. Apple knows there will be no adoption without truly amazing experiences available when you put on a headset. It will be developers that create those experiences.
In fact, at The Conversation, Jeff Chiu speculated that the real audience for this first version of the Vision Pro is more developers than it is consumers:
“Getting developers to build exciting complementary offerings, such as apps and device add-ons, would give Apple a springboard to convince users of the Vision Pro’s value. But this won’t work without developers’ buy-in, which leads us to believe the Vision Pro is (at least for now) aimed at Apple’s 34 million registered app developers, rather than the broader user market.”
As these apps and experiences are built out, Apple is also rumoured to be working on a more mainstream (e.g., more feature-rich and less costly) v2.0 of the AVP. This would be directly aligned with how consumer passion for smartphones grew over time as the cost fell and functionality and user experience improved.
Of course, we need to see if (or when) the coming experiences built for spatial computing headsets catalyze public interest in the technology in the way that killer apps on smartphones did. Spatial computing eyeglasses have a much taller hill to climb than smartphones ever did.
And of course, the burden for making spatial computing cool belongs to everyone in the space, not just Apple. Spatial computing was here before the AVP and many other companies will be looking to capitalize on expanded consumer interest, innovate in the space, and create the enriching experiences that may one day be as common as those we now take for granted on our smartphones.
The future of everyday interactions at work and home
Tech research firm IDC expects the AR/VR headset market to “grow 46.8 per cent year on year on the back of Apple's Vision Pro launch, new hardware from Meta Platforms and the growing presence of smaller companies. The market is expected to reach 30.3 million units globally by 2027, up from about 8.5 million last year, according to IDC.”
What do these growth projections tell us?
We’re moving – slowly but perhaps inevitably – towards a future where spatial computing technology will amplify human potential, helping to unite us with our world and with each other in deeper, more meaningful ways.
In the midst of this transformative wave in technology, PureWeb stands as a beacon of innovation, poised to revolutionize the landscape of spatial computing. PureWeb’s technology is a critical layer in the evolution of the growing AR/VR headset market.
Our commitment to pushing the boundaries of spatial computing technology aligns seamlessly with the projected growth trajectory. With PureWeb, businesses and individuals alike can easily harness the power of immersive experiences to unlock unparalleled levels of collaboration, productivity, and creativity.
As the world transitions towards a future where spatial computing seamlessly integrates into everyday interactions, PureWeb empowers users to embrace this paradigm shift with confidence. From entertainment to healthcare to knowledge work, our platform facilitates immersive connections that transcend boundaries, paving the way for a more empowered society – one where we’re connected in ways we’re only now starting to imagine.
