Although the latest report shows that Apple smart glasses won’t be available until 2023, it is in the company’s interest to make them compatible with as many iPhones as possible to maximize sales opportunities.
Editor’s note: This article comes from Tencent Technology .
According to foreign media reports, a report earlier this week suggested that the upcoming iPhone 12 may support the new WiFi standard 802.11ay. There are reports today that speculate that the new WiFi standard adopted by Apple iPhone 12 may be compatible with the long-rumored Apple smart glasses.
The news of iPhone 12 adopting the new WiFi standard is quite surprising, because this standard is very new, and the relevant specifications have not even been finalized, and Apple usually waits for some time to adopt new technologies-just like us Seen in all Apple products after 3G.
Jason Cross of Macworld Networks explained that 802.11ay is actually an upgraded version of Gigabit WiFi that was first created ten years ago.
About 10 years ago, the Wireless Gigabit Alliance (including Apple, Intel, AMD, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and others) came together to develop a standard specification for wireless communications in the 60 GHz band. They call it WiGig because it provides gigabit speed. Its IEEE official designation is 802.11ad, but it never really caught on.
802.11ay is an upgraded version of WiGig, which was finally approved in 2019, which is a major improvement on the WiGig protocol. 802.11ay will use 60 GHz spectrum to provide high-bandwidth “device-to-device” data transmission. The bandwidth is increased to 8.64 GHz, the transmission distance is 300 meters to 500 meters, and the target rate is up to 176Gbps. In theory, one can be downloaded in 1 second Blu-ray movie. It is reported that the 802.11ay specification is currently in the drafting stage and is expected to be finalized by the end of this year. Of course, real-world performance will be much lower, but this is still a huge improvement over the Wi-Fi you are used to.
But considering that 802.11ay still lacks the ability to penetrate walls, what good is it for the iPhone? Cross said that it will make Apple’s AirDrop function faster, which may be useful when sending large video files between Apple devices. But he speculated that the bigger reason for Apple’s interest in 802.11ay might be for Apple smart glasses.
The exciting part of 802.11ay is that it providesWith enough high bandwidth and low enough latency, it can be used to send data to a high-resolution, high-refresh rate display, such as a virtual reality or augmented reality headset.
For a long time, there have been rumors that Apple is developing a smart helmet or glasses with at least AR capabilities, or it may be a smart helmet or glasses that mixes AR and VR. All data processing tasks for the AR / VR experience can be done in a smart helmet or glasses, making it a completely separate product, but doing so will make it bigger, heavier, more expensive, and reduce battery life. Another option is to turn the smart helmet or glasses into a set of displays and cameras. All processing takes place on some kind of base station, such as your new iPhone 12. To do this, Apple must use 802.11ay to provide ultra-high-speed, ultra-low-latency connections.
Although the latest report indicates that Apple smart glasses will not be available until 2023, it is in the company’s interest to make them compatible with as many iPhones as possible to maximize sales opportunities. Therefore, it makes sense to put the necessary technology into the iPhone released before Apple’s smart glasses. (Tencent Technology Review / Lexue)