Apple has finally thrown its hat into the VR ring with the announcement of the Apple Vision Pro. This VR headset is designed to not only deliver more immersive entertainment experiences but also boost productivity with virtual desktop apps as well as the newly announced digital Persona.
With the front camera on the Vision Pro headset, a user will be able to scan their face in order to create an almost 1:1 virtual reconstruction — aka Persona — of their likeness. Not only will this avatar be more visually accurate, but it will also be animated in real-time to match your mouth and hand movements for more natural-looking conversations. The Digital Persona can be integrated with the FaceTime app for VisionOS to make collaboration with non-VR-using teammates smoother. Apple also hopes that digital Personas will find use outside of collaboration spaces as Vision Pro users come together for movie nights, share media together, or simply hang out in their favorite virtual spaces.
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Along with your now-digitized self, the Persona will work with spatial audio during FaceTime calls as well as life-sized photo tiles for video call participants in order to help recreate the feeling of a traditional, in-person meeting. The Apple Vision Pro VR headset will be released sometime in 2024, which gives app developers a nice headstart on finding ways to integrate the Persona feature into their software.