Vision Pro Teardown—Why Those Fake Eyes Look So Weird
Vision Pro Teardown—Why Those Fake Eyes Look So Weird
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Vision Pro Teardown—Why Those Fake Eyes Look So Weird | iFixit News
152 comments
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In a nutshell if anything breaks you are screwed ;D
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It's an Apple device, what did you expect?
The thing even has an external battery pack, and instead of using USB-C so you could use any power bank you already own, they designed a completely new proprietary connector. In 2024.
Who the fuck does that anymore, except Apple?-
It’s even worse. The cable appears to be a bigger version of Lightning, because of course it is.
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I can see the argument for having a connector that can’t be pulled out: if you were crossing a busy street or walking down a stairway with one of these strapped to your head and the cable came out, you’d be instantly blind.
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Did USB-c match their needs?
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You can use any USB battery with it, just plug it into the battery pack. Why? Because releasing this without a battery and leaving it to the customer to source one would be super weird.
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Thems fake eyes saw no more
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Actually, if it breaks you get Apple to fix it. I think anyone who is spending $$3500+ on a portable device knows to be careful with it and doesn’t want it to break.
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Just think about it for a moment. Apple made a mask, that when you wear it in your face, projects a 3D animated avatar if you face on the outside. That is so weird, f’ed up and dystopian.
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I won’t argue about whether this is dystopian, but the practical reason for the face projection is that they wanted to make this not just something you wear sitting alone in your basement, like most other VR headsets. They wanted it to be usable around other people, at a workplace, with family, etc.
Interacting with someone wearing a full face blind is just weird, so they thought that making the eyes visible would help make this a bit more socially usable.
I’m not sure that’s really going to work out — seems at least as awkward as Google’s failed Glass project — but Apple’s design decision has some merit.
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Google Glass really feels smarter in this particular regard.
Also they decided to stuff everything into the headset.
Maybe making it a separate thing and moving as much mass and volume as possible to something worn on your belt or your back would be a better idea. EDIT: But I do understand how this doesn't fit their marketing.
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Given the number of TV shows and movies around this topic, I can sense this change coming.
If I have to interact with someone that's wearing goggles, I might go full Luddite.
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It's super easy to know if someone is looking at you when they take off the headset
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It's a VR headset. It's not a social experience.
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I think it's just straight up uncanny valley. Don't think it's especially "dystopian" per se.
Honestly cartoon eyes might have actually worked better here.
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should just be some googly eyes
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I wouldn't go so far as fucked up and dystopian. It's just an odd style choice.
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It's really cheesy and cringe, a product looking for a problem.
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The second half is basically why Apple is successful.
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I don’t think I can agree with this.
The face projection was likely an afterthought. They were already deep into the 3D face scan into avatar world with things like continuity camera and lidar. Granted, I don’t believe they are currently able to reposition the face into a completely different angle (top down into forward facing) with continuity camera, but that’s where their tech was going anyway. And they wanted to be able to have user facial expressions in device regardless.
All they did in this case was slap a screen on the front and display the avatar the thing is already generating, then call it a feature and upcharge with a 1000% markup on the total cost.
It’s a gimmick, that’s all it ever was. Meant to make this look like a sleeker device than it is with some clever marketing.
Not dystopian, just disappointing.
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A real semi-transparent mask with a projector with a computer with an open architecture would really be a cool thing. Wouldn't be VR or AR, of course. Just projecting text and lowres pictures, like Google Glass. But I'd like that, to be frank. Only not just for one eye, that'd cause headaches and anxiety.
It’s a gimmick, that’s all it ever was. Meant to make this look like a sleeker device than it is with some clever marketing.
Typical Apple. Sad when they do that when a much sleeker device or a much better experience actually exists. Like in 2007, ya knaw ...
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That is so weird, f’ed up and dystopian.
It's not as weird as the Meta Quest, where you literally have no idea wether the person wearing it is looking at you or not.
The view of someone's eyes is very low quality - I'll give you that. But it's better than nothing at all. And I'm not sure they could've done better without doubling the price of the product.
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Nah, it's actually much weirder and more unsettling. You can't tell if someone's looking at you when they wear sunglasses either. No one cares. I'd much rather deal with that than creepy inhuman eyes.
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But it’s better than nothing at all.
Although there are better solutions than making a facsimile of real eyes, like putting a user-customisable avatar eye/indicator or something on top, which wouldn't get quite as uncanny. At least, not any more than wearing a sleep mask with an eye design on top.
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I don't know, I could see the value if it really looked like the mask was semi transparent.
So it's a cool idea, the only problem is that they didn't deliver and the result is creepy instead.
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Not only did they make something that weird, they put an absolute shit load of effort into doing so. That teardown video was insane.
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The example video of showing wearing the headset and showing the outer display:
https://valkyrie.cdn.ifixit.com/media/2024/02/03103510/Display-Stack_sm.mp4
It is off putting and reminds me of one of the Robocop 2 Prototypes.
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I don’t know what I expected but that was mortifying.
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This is a fun, silly discussion and I love it!
But hey, what you're seeing is just some internal component, so why would that be mortifying? I found it hilarious!
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holy fucking shit what the fuck is that
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Put it in a clear case!!
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🎶It's not the best choice...🎶
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You've tried the best, now try the rest!
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Imagine engineering something that complicated only for it to be a disappointing product. I have no doubt it's a step toward better products but at the same time they could've done better. Maybe spend more time polishing the actual parts that matter instead of creating the world's most complicated weird fake blurry eyes?
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I don’t think it is a disappointing product, I think it is pretty amazing actually.
Blurry eyes, yeah, that outward facing screen is an interesting choice but it makes sense with that they were going for. Based on all the tech in the Vision Pro I doubt that outward facing screen added much in terms of cost to the Bill of Materials but it is a nifty thing to try out. I’d rather have companies experimenting with this type of thing than only making predictable products over and over again with only minor improvements.
I don’t think it is productive to bad mouth a product that you probably haven’t even tried yet and probably would not be buying anyway.
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152 comments