NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 21, 2023--

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Apple looks set to reveal its long-awaited virtual reality headset in the coming days – and new reports have revealed more details on what it could actually look like. The company has been rumoured to be working on a virtual reality headset for years. But it now looks set to reveal that to the world, according to numerous reports. In recent days, Apple has sent out invitations to its unveiling event to virtual reality publications, and some have speculated that the media invitations included hints that the headset was due to be released. While Apple does not comment on unreleased products, there has been no indication from inside the company or in any reports that the excitement over the imminent unveiling of the headset is mistaken. Now new reports have indicated how exactly the headset might work. Display analyst Ross Young, who has a track record of revealing unreleased Apple products, said the upcoming headset has two displays inside, each of which measure 1.41 inches diagonally across. Those displays can show more than 5,000 nits of peak brightness, he indicated. That is vastly brighter than other virtual reality competitors, such as the PSVR or Meta Quest, whose brightness figures are in the low hundreds. Bright displays are one of the difficulties facing those companies who want to develop convincing displays. Real life is vastly more bright than any head-mounted screen is capable of showing, which means that they can be unconvincing and dark when worn. Meta, for instance, has revealed that it has been working on a prototype technology named Starburst, which can show up to 20,000 nits. But that prototype is impractical and far from a released product – and for now it has been left with various headsets, each of which match the various capabilities that Meta would eventually like to add to one headset. The screen will also have 4,000 pixels per inch, the same report from Ross Young indicated. That would also make it much more capable than even the high-end offerings from other companies such as Meta. Away from the hardware itself, the software that will run on the headset still remains largely mysterious. While reports have suggested that Apple is working on new virtual reality and augmented reality versions of its existing apps, and the developers of the game No Man’s Sky have suggested that they could be involved in the unveiling, there have been no meaningful reports about how the software might actually appear inside the headset. Read More Apple is going to reveal something else alongside its headset, rumours suggest Trust and ethics considerations ‘have come too late’ on AI technology New iPhone update ‘completely changes how the lock screen works’

Scientists are using AI to search planets for alien life. Researchers writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say artificial intelligence can determine with 90 per cent accuracy whether a sample from another planet is biological or not. Scientists hope that their test could be used on samples already collected by the Mars Curiosity rover’s Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. The findings could also help tell us more about our own planet, revealing the history of mysterious and ancient rocks found on Earth. “The search for extraterrestrial life remains one of the most tantalizing endeavors in modern science,” said lead author Jim Cleaves of the Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC. “The implications of this new research are many, but there are three big takeaways: First, at some deep level, biochemistry differs from abiotic organic chemistry; second, we can look at Mars and ancient Earth samples to tell if they were once alive; and third, it is likely this new method could distinguish alternative biospheres from those of Earth, with significant implications for future astrobiology missions.” The technique was built by giving an artificial intelligent system data about 134 known samples, with information about whether they are biotic or abiotic. To test it, it was then given new samples – including those from living things, remnants of ancient life and other abiotic samples that did not point to life, such as pure chemicals. The system also started predicting another kind of sample type, dividing the biotic ones into “living” and “fossils”. That means it could tell the difference between a freshly harvested leaf and something else that died long ago, for instance. In the future, the technology could become even more advanced and detect other aspects of life. “This routine analytical method has the potential to revolutionize the search for extraterrestrial life and deepen our understanding of both the origin and chemistry of the earliest life on Earth,” said Robert Hazen, of the Carnegie Institution for Science, one of the leaders of the research. “It opens the way to using smart sensors on robotic spacecraft, landers and rovers to search for signs of life before the samples return to Earth.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.