Spatial computing
Spatial computing is human interaction with a machine that retains and manipulates references to physical objects and spaces, so it knows where the floor or a part is and works with them (Greenwold, 2003). Apple adopted the term in 2023 to present Vision Pro as its first spatial computer.
Fyware's XR glossary, with the source behind each definition.
Spatial computing is human interaction with a machine that retains and manipulates references to physical objects and spaces, so it knows where the floor or a part is and works with them (Greenwold, 2003). Apple adopted the term in 2023 to present Vision Pro as its first spatial computer.
Apple put the term on a product on June 5, 2023, when it introduced Vision Pro as its first spatial computer and visionOS as what it called the world’s first spatial operating system. According to Apple, the R1 chip processes input from 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones and streams new images to the displays within 12 milliseconds. Apple also says camera and sensor data are handled by the system itself, so an app can place content in the room without receiving images of the room.
The definition is twenty years older. Simon Greenwold gave it in his 2003 master’s thesis at the MIT Media Lab, where he argued that machines need this ability to work alongside people as fuller partners. The difference from augmented reality is the subject of each definition: augmented reality describes what the person sees, a digital layer aligned with the surroundings, and spatial computing describes what the machine keeps about those surroundings, with an image or without one.
The 3GPP report on XR describes how a system builds that knowledge: spatial mapping creates a map of the surroundings and localization places users and objects inside it. Spatial anchors fix the position of a 3D object in a shared experience and hold it accurately only within a limited space, about a 3-meter (10-foot) radius in the Microsoft Mixed Reality Toolkit example the report cites. The same clause notes that the maps can be stored in the cloud or built on a spatial computing server, and that privacy concerns have to be addressed when indoor spaces are scanned and their features stored. In a plant, the practical consequence is that the system remembers where each thing was left relative to the floor and the walls and places digital content accordingly. The useful question for a buyer is what the system keeps of that space and on which device or server it stays.
The fire extinguisher simulator in Fyware Safe works this way. Before the session starts, the Meta Quest 3 headset scans the room and places two to five fire sources on that same floor, each with its fire class, along with the extinguisher cart and the evacuation door; the setup is saved for the next session, and a clear area of 2 by 2 meters, about 6.5 feet on each side, is enough. Because the system knows where everything was placed, the person runs to the cart for the right extinguisher and, if the clock runs out, walks to the door while the headset times the evacuation.
«[...] the machine retains and manipulates referents to real objects and spaces.»
The thesis defines spatial computing by what the machine retains and manipulates of physical space.
«Introducing Apple Vision Pro: Apple’s first spatial computer»
Apple presented Vision Pro on June 5, 2023 as its first spatial computer.
«R1 streams new images to the displays within 12 milliseconds»
According to Apple, the R1 chip processes 12 cameras, five sensors and six microphones and delivers new images within 12 milliseconds; the same release says camera and sensor data are processed at the system level.
«Privacy concerns need to be explored by the service provider when scanning indoor spaces»
The 3GPP report describes how spatial maps are built and where they can be stored, including a spatial computing server, and asks service providers to examine privacy when indoor spaces are scanned.
Augmented reality describes what the person sees, digital content aligned with the surroundings. Spatial computing describes what the machine keeps about those surroundings, their objects and spaces, in order to work with them (Greenwold, 2003). Nearly all augmented reality anchored to a floor relies on spatial computing, and a system can use spatial computing without showing any image.
A headset that scans a room and leaves virtual fire on its floor, like the Fyware Safe fire extinguisher simulator, or a robot arm twin anchored to the tape mark where its base would stand, like the one Fyware built in mixed reality on HoloLens 2. Hololight Space, which Fyware distributes in Mexico, aligns a CAD model to the physical object with object tracking or QR codes, according to Hololight. On the consumer side, Apple presented Vision Pro in 2023 as its first spatial computer.
It is the name Apple gave Vision Pro when it introduced it on June 5, 2023: a headset whose operating system, visionOS, takes apps out of the frame of a screen and places them in the space around the user, who selects them with a look and a tap of the fingers and can dictate by voice. Tim Cook presented it as the start of spatial computing, in the way the Mac opened personal computing and iPhone mobile computing. Greenwold’s 2003 definition is broader and covers any interaction in which the machine keeps and manipulates references to physical objects and spaces, with a headset or without one.
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