As Apple continues to poach talent in the AR field, several AR-related call files have been added to the iOS development framework

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Recently, iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith tweeted that Apple has added several reference files for "head-mounted display rendering technology" to its key development framework. These files can be called by developers to develop some VR/AR related functions.

Steven believes that Apple is imitating HoloLens to build an application platform and wants to hand over VR application development to others, which has been reflected in the SceneKit 3D game development framework in iOS 9. In iOS 10, SceneKit seems to be designed for AR development.

Meanwhile, Apple continues to hire talent in the AR field, which Tim Cook called "incredibly interesting."

Just this month, Apple hired Zeyu Li, who had worked at Magic Leap for more than a year. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is interested in deep learning, VR, AR, and driverless cars.

In June this year, Yury Petrov became a research scholar at Apple. Previously, he worked on virtual reality platforms at Oculus and Facebook, and also taught at Northeastern University. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has been focusing on experimental psychology, human vision, optical head-mounted displays, brain imaging, and mathematical methods for signal processing and analysis.

Last September, Apple poached HoloLens engineer Nick Thompson from Microsoft. According to the information on his LinkedIn page, Nick Thompson is the audio engineering director for Microsoft's HoloLens project. Thompson has been working on the HoloLens project for more than two years, so he is indeed an ideal candidate to help Apple explore augmented reality.

According to the Financial Times, Apple has established a headset prototype team with hundreds of employees, and 3D stereo headsets are generally considered an important part of VR applications.

Apple's hiring spree began in May 2015 when it acquired an AR startup called Metaio. Metaio's CEO Thomas Alt still works for Apple today.

In September last year, Apple acquired FaceShift, a facial mapping software company. FaceShift's technology can use cameras to analyze human faces in real time and can be used to create animated virtual images. The recent hit movie "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" used FaceShift's technology to increase the realism of alien masks.

Two years ago, Apple acquired PrimeSense, an Israeli company that makes depth sensors, whose motion-detecting camera technology was used in the first-generation Xbox Kinect. This gesture recognition is important for augmented reality devices, as there are no handheld controllers.

If Apple really wants to make a difference in the VR/AR field, it will face many powerful competitors. Google Glass opened the curtain on the AR technology boom. Although the progress of the Google Glass project has been chaotic so far, Google has not completely abandoned the concept. In addition, Google is also a major investor in the mysterious Magic Leap. Microsoft is developing the AR glasses product HoloLens, and Snapchat is also quietly developing its own AR glasses product. Apple obtained a patent for VR/AR head-mounted display technology that connects to the iPhone for content playback in February last year. This technology is very similar to the GearVR jointly developed by Samsung and Oculus.