Persona enrollment for FaceTime, as well as the basics of visionOS navigation with eyes and hands, are covered on a pair of leaked Vision Pro onboarding videos.
New onboarding videos uncovered from the latest visionOS beta provide a deeper look into setting up the $3500 headset and creating a FaceTime persona.
“To set up your persona, you’ll remove your Apple Vision Pro to capture your appearance,” the video says. Apple recommends holding the headset at eye level to capture an accurate representation of your face, arms and shoulders.
The other video shows the user how they can navigate the visionOS user interface just by gazing at on-screen elements and using hand gestures like tapping or pinching with two fingers to perform actions like selecting and scrolling.
Persona is your digital avatar for FaceTime calls
The Persona feature solves the problem of representing a Vision Pro user in a video call on FaceTime because the headset can’t record their face. To overcome this limitation, visionOS applies your facial expressions and hand movements to your digital self. People on the call see your lifelike avatar animating in real-time.
New video tutorial showing Persona Enrollment for Apple Vision Pro added in visionOS beta 6!
The enrollment uses the EyeSight display to guide the user. pic.twitter.com/cGfsdTuIaY
— M1 (@M1Astra) November 14, 2023
This is called persona. During Vision Pro setup, the user can scan their face using the headset. They’re guided to perform a series of head moves similar to setting up Face ID, like turning the head in all directions and perform facial expressions such as smiling, closing the eyes and raising the eyebrows.
“When you’re done, put Apple Vision Pro back on to see your persona,” it says.
Eye and hand tracking
The visionOS operating system uses internal and external sensors and cameras to detect where your gaze is directed and pick up hand gestures. This is perhaps one of the aspects of the headset that impressed early reviewers the most.
New onboarding video added in visionOS beta 6!
"Input Training" pic.twitter.com/ThKGBL4FbA
— M1 (@M1Astra) November 14, 2023
“You browse the system by looking, and it responds to your eyes,” the video explains. “Simply look at an element and tap your fingers together to select it.” Aside from pinning and tapping, visionOS supports other hand gestures like pinching two fingers together and gently flicking to scroll content in any direction.
Meet your digital avatar for FaceTime calls
During enrollment, captured data is fed to a neural network to create your digital avatar. The demonstration video that Apple released at the WWDC explains that the company had trained its “advanced encoder-decoder neural network” on a “diverse group of thousands of individuals” for the Persona feature.