Vision Pro Teardown Reveals 'Fake Eyes' Technology
A detailed teardown of the Vision Pro headset explains the technology behind its external "EyeSight" display. The feature, which shows a rendering of the user's eyes, is powered by a lenticular screen positioned behind a curved glass panel to create its unique visual effect.
- The concept for EyeSight was driven by a core tenet of avoiding user isolation, a common problem with existing VR headsets; this principle was championed by former Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and required deep, symbiotic collaboration between Apple's hardware and software teams from the project's inception. - The 3D effect of the user's eyes is achieved by rendering multiple viewing angles of a digital "Persona" and directing them through a curved lenticular lens placed over an OLED display; this was the first time a curved lenticular display has been used in a consumer device. - The dedicated R1 chip is crucial for processing input from 12 cameras, five sensors, and six microphones in real-time, streaming images to the displays, including EyeSight, within 12 milliseconds to create a seamless connection with the outside world. - Manufacturing the EyeSight display presented significant supply chain challenges, particularly with the production of the micro-OLED displays and the complex, curved lenticular lens, leading Apple to slash initial production targets from 1 million to under 400,000 units. - Apple's patent for the technology, titled "Wearable Device for Facilitating Enhanced Interaction," was first filed in 2017 and includes concepts beyond the current implementation, such as displaying anime-style eyes or other graphics to indicate the user's status. - The outer cover glass protecting the EyeSight display proved to be surprisingly fragile in scratch tests, showing damage at a level 3 on the Mohs hardness scale, more akin to plastic, which presents a significant repair challenge and cost, with or without AppleCare+. - The multi-layer design of the EyeSight screen, which includes the OLED panel, a lenticular lens, and a widening layer, inherently reduces the brightness and effective resolution of the displayed eyes, contributing to their dim and sometimes "creepy" appearance. - Alan Dye, Apple's VP of Human Interface Design, and Richard Howarth, VP of Industrial Design, emphasized that EyeSight was a "core concept" developed over years to make others feel comfortable and maintain human connection while the device is in use.
