Apple hires top virtual and augmented reality expert, FT reports

(credit: Steve Rhodes)

While nearly all of the big tech companies have some sort of plan in place to deal with the upcoming onslaught of virtual reality and augmented reality technology, there's been one rather large holdout: Apple. According to a report from the Financial Times, however, Apple now has its own VR/AR expert. Doug Bowman is joining Apple following a sabbatical from his position as a professor of computer science and the director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech.

Bowman, who was the lead author of 3D User Interfaces: Theory and Practice, has an impressive background in virtual reality tech, with research focused on "three-dimensional user interface design and the benefits of immersion in virtual environments," according to his academic profile. He also collaborated on numerous articles, including Virtual Reality: How Much Immersion Is Enough? (PDF), 3D User Interfaces: New Directions and Perspectives (PDF), and The Effects of Visual Realism on Search Tasks in Mixed Reality Simulation (PDF).

Notably, last year Bowman was the recipient of a $100,000 (70,000) research grant from Microsoft for using its HoloLens headset for a study on "collaborative analysis of large-scale mixed reality data."

Read 4 remaining paragraphs | Comments