When the Bose QC35 Series 2 were first released in late 2017, they were the first headphones
to have google assistant integration.
Now fast forward to 2019, most new premium ANC headphones now have some type of voice
assistant integration…
Some even let you choose between using Google Assistant or Alexa.
But now, the Bose QC35 Series 2 are also the first headphones on the market to support
augmented reality.
Now even though Bose AR is very much still in its infancy, and its only available to
specific Bose QC35’s I thought it be cool to check out.
Now like I just said, Bose AR is only available on specific Bose QC35’s and its also available
on Bose’s New Frames.
Now, Bose AR is only available on Bose QC35 Series 2’s that were manufactured after
November 2018.
So to see if your Bose QC35’s are compatible with Bose AR first you should update the Bose
Connect App, then tap on the Gear icon in the top right corner, scroll down to product
info, and then you’ll see a tab that says Date Of Manufacturing.
Now Bose AR isn’t available on older Bose QC35’s cause Bose quietly did a low key
hardware refresh on their headphones.
Bose AR works off of using raw sensor data collected from a newly implemented accelerometer,
gyroscope, and compass found in newer QC35’s.
Now the addition of these new sensors shouldn’t of had been a challenge for Bose’s engineering
team, and I thinks its smart Bose did this minor hardware refresh on the down low, cause
if Bose decided to name these slightly retooled QC35’s the Bose QC35 Series 3, then people
would have been super disappointed cause theres just so much anticipation and hype around
the fabled Bose QC45’s.
Ok so just what the heck is Bose AR?
Bose is trying to take a sound first approach to augmented reality, to create new Audio
experiences and apps that react to your current location and how you move about an environment.
And thanks to the new sensors built into the new QC35’s you now have a few new gestures
at your disposal to interact with these apps.
Now theres currently a very short list of Bose AR apps that Bose is currently showcasing,
but since they’re still in their infancy I found them to be very underwhelming and
some of them even routinely crashed on me.
But thats ok.
But in this video im going to be showcasing two apps that I think do a very good job of
demonstrating the accuracy and potential of Bose AR.
First is Bose’s own Radar App, and here you can see that you can tap on the headphones
to make a selection and you can also see that as I move my head, the arrow on the screen
also moves somewhat accordingly.
Now don’t freak out, the Bose QC35 don’t have a touch pad all of a sudden, the built
in accelerometer is simply registering the haptic feed back from my taps.
So you can tap the headphones anywhere really.
Ok, now we’re going to checkout one of Bose’s own 360 degree audio scenes.
You’ll notice that as I move around the music is going to change in relation to my
orientation.
Listen specifically for the drums.
So like you just heard, as I moved around the audio playing in the head phones changed
accordingly.
Making it feel like I was in the middle of a live band.
Now the next app is going to show case the new head gestures found on the new Bose QC35’s.
These head gestures include nodding, shacking your head, and tilting your head to the left
or right.
But most importantly you’ll see the level of accuracy these headphones have when it
comes to registering
a gesture.
So
like you may have just seen, gesture recognition on the Bose QC35’s is pretty accurate.
I just personally wish that nodding didn’t have to be as exaggerated.
I found that if I were to nod my head in a much more sublet and natural manor it wouldn’t
of had registered as easily.
But I personally think the new gestures available on the new Bose QC35’s could really come
in handy when it comes to interacting with your voice assistant.
Imagine if you ask Google Assistant to send out a text to someone… and after google
assistant processes your request and reads the text back to you before sending… instead
of verbally having to approve the text message you could simply just nod your head yes to
let google assistant know that your text says what you want it to say and that they should
go ahead and send it.
Or imagine if you tell google assistant you’re looking for lunch, but you don’t know where
to go or what you're in the mood for.
Google assistant could start reading off the top rated dishes of the restaurants near you
and you can shake your head no until you hear something that you like, nod your head yes,
and then google with start navigating to that restaurant.
What I’m getting at is that I think these new head gestures could open the possibility
of being able to communicate with your virtual assistant in a non verbal way just like we
do sometimes with one another.
But still, like I said at the beginning of this video…
Bose AR is still very much in its infancy and it could definitely fail like google glass
did a few years ago.
But as more developers get their hands on Bose AR maybe we’ll see more robust apps
pop up.
I think Bose AR could prove to be useful when it comes to interacting with your voice assistant
and entertainment.
But comment down below, what other ideas do you have for
Bose AR.