AR IS GOING TO CHANGE THE WAY WE USE TECHNOLOGY.

developed a headset with a focus on education and medical uses.

Chief executive officer Tim Cook considers AR less isolating than VR and as potentially revolutionary as the smartphone. He has talked up the technology on Good Morning America and gives it as almost much attention during earnings calls as sales growth. “We’re already seeing things that will transform the way you work, play, Dolby Labs, the group has now grown to several hundred engineers from across Apple, the people said. Scattered across office parks in both Cupertino and Sunnyvale, California, the team is working on several hardware and software projects under the umbrella code name of “T288.”

The team’s first product was ARKit, tools that outside software developers use to create AR applications for the latest iPhones and iPads, leveraging their screens, cameras and processors to create virtual 3-D interfaces for online shopping, education and gaming. This was an interim step, giving Apple an opportunity to test the technology on an existing product.

The next step — creating a headset with a built-in display capable of streaming 3D video without draining the battery — is much more complicated. Cook acknowledged as much in a recent interview with The Independent, when he said: “Anything you would see on the market any time soon would not be something any of us would be satisfied with.”

Referring to challenges creating displays, chief design officer Jony Ive told a tech panel last month that “there are certain ideas that we have and we are waiting for the technology to catch up with the idea.”

As with previous products, Apple isn’t waiting around for someone else to create a chip capable of powering its AR headset. It’s designing one in-house that’s similar in concept to the “system-on-a-package” component in the Apple Watch. Such chips can squeeze more components — graphics processors, AI chip, CPU — into a smaller area than standard processors; they also consume less power.