According to IT Home on March 3rd, Apple's Vision Pro headset boasts one of the highest-resolution screens among current AR/VR devices, which means creating top-tier immersive content for it requires a high-performance camera.
Last week, during an interview at the CP+ Photography Expo in Yokohama, Japan, Canon's executive team discussed the growing popularity of AR and VR technologies, specifically mentioning Apple's Vision Pro.
According to IT Home, Canon previously introduced a lens specifically designed for creating VR content — the 5.2mm f/2.8 L. It appears they are closely following the pulse of the VR industry and have been paying attention to this field for some time.
Kiyomi Tetsuji, the Chief Advisor and Unit CEO of Canon's Imaging Communication Business Operations, remarked, "From last year to this year, I've witnessed a significant surge in VR demand. Therefore, I believe the demand for 3D, VR, and AR will undoubtedly increase."
Tokura Go, Senior Executive Officer and Vice President of Canon's Imaging Group, added, "Even before Apple's launch of Vision Pro, the VR market itself was already expanding, but its introduction will certainly further drive the development of this market. Due to the extremely high resolution of Vision Pro, as far as we know, it is currently difficult to find a resolution sufficient to meet the requirements of Vision Pro's VR systems."
Canon stated that looking ahead, developing a camera and lens system to support the creation of immersive video content for Vision Pro is likely to be a new business opportunity or potential market.
Currently, Apple offers a range of immersive "environments" that allow wearers of the Vision Pro to immerse themselves in various virtual scenes. However, achieving such a high level of detail and refresh rate in the real world using existing cameras on the market without computer graphics assistance is very challenging. It is speculated that some of the foundational imagery for these immersive assets may have been captured using a RED 8K camera, but Apple has not confirmed this. Additionally, most of these environments are not designed for close viewing, and the proportions of these contents seem to differ from those captured by cameras available on the market when viewed on the Vision Pro. While there are some dynamic scenes, the majority of the environments are static.
If one were to create an immersive landscape containing elements such as animals, people, etc., Canon believes that this would require a very powerful camera system to achieve a lifelike quality.
Shiomi Yasuhiko, the Director of Consulting and Chief Operating Officer of Canon's Imaging Communication Business Operations, stated, "To produce videos for Vision Pro, we would need a sensor with at least 100 million pixels. So currently, we are unable to meet this level of demand. However, I speculate that the companies providing images for Vision Pro will need to have sensors with 100 million pixels and a frame rate of 60 frames per second."
For reference, 100 million pixels equate to around 14K resolution, almost twice the resolution offered by most high-resolution movies currently. The only camera that meets this requirement is Sphere's Big Sky camera, which is an 18K behemoth requiring 12 operators. While it can meet the demand, it is not in mass production and, considering the cost, it lacks commercial viability outside of producing content specifically for Sphere.
"14K at 60 frames per second is a very extravagant specification, and currently, there is no commercially available camera on the market that can meet the resolution and frame rate requirements of Vision Pro."
At the Canon Expo in 2015, the company showcased a 100 million pixel sensor, indicating Canon's previous foray into this level of resolution. However, the combination of this resolution with a 60 frames per second requirement is exceedingly high.
"Thus far, we have not been able to achieve this in a commercially viable manner. But, if you don't mind, please stay tuned to see if we can accomplish this," added Tokura. "Technically, theoretically, we can achieve it. But the question is whether we can develop a commercially viable product and at a price point that customers can afford."
This is worth emphasizing because the previously mentioned Big Sky camera does exist, but it is highly specialized and arguably not commercially viable in its current state.
However, Canon is closely monitoring this market and expects to evolve in the direction of meeting these demands. "This is a goal," Tokura said.
"We are improving our technology to be able to provide high resolution for VR purposes. We will continue to work on improving our technology to achieve a good balance between resolution and speed," Shiomi added.
