visionOS 2: When personas can shake hands
"Uncanny Valley", too artificial, too misshapen: Apple's representation of people in visionOS was initially criticized. Now the company wants to improve it.
Gaming with the Vision Pro: Here you can see the persona of a friend touching game characters.
(Image: Apple)
Users of the beta version of visionOS 2 have noticed that Apple's Persona function, which allows you to create your own virtual character, has been equipped with numerous new options. The Vision Pro characters, which can be used for video chats among other things, not only look a little more realistic than before, but can now also operate with their hands. Apple has implemented various new gestures for this purpose.
Fist bump in the shared environment
The Chinese-speaking visionOS developer @xchester16 showed this on X in a short video. Among other things, it shows how you can interact directly with each other in a shared environment – in which the participants are detached from the persona windows. The possibilities include the direct touching of hands in the form of handshakes, the fist bump or the "high five". Even virtual finger touches are possible. Apple emphasizes this visually and acoustically, it should feel amazingly real.
The shared environment, also known as Shared Space, allows several people to share a virtual space. For example, you can view panoramas, watch videos together or play games with each other. This already feels quite real - more real than in Meta's Horizon Worlds with its avatars, for example. However, the "Uncanny Valley" effect of the personas remains, but you get used to the look surprisingly quickly.
Innovations already in visionOS 1.2
Apple had already made some improvements to Personas in visionOS 1.2, which was released on Monday. The virtual figures can now also be created without hands (e.g. for people with disabilities), hair and make-up should be depicted more accurately and the mouth and neck appear more realistic.
The display of the eyes on the external screen (EyeSight) should also look better than before. They are set up when the persona is created. The virtual character is also used for all other video chat apps such as Teams or Google Meet in the browser. visionOS 2 is due to be released in the fall.
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