Managing a smart home while somewhere in VR is doable with Homerise for Apple Vision Pro.
Smart homes have been promised for decades while the reality of functionality and features remain out of reach for a range of technical reasons. One such reason still with us today is that a physical switch installed on a lamp in the 20th century can effectively take the device offline by simply killing the power at the wrong point in the circuit. But what if you could place digital switches at more convenient places accessible from your favorite seat while wearing a headset? You could press those virtual buttons instead, essentially short-circuiting yourself from accidentally taking one of your smart lights off the network when you flipped that old-fashioned physical switch. That’s what the immersive view in Homerise is for on Apple Vision Pro.
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Homerise works both as an immersive app in full VR or mixed reality, as well as a flat panel floating window with customizable widgets and controls you can deploy around your environment. The tools include controls for HomeKit-enabled accessories, displaying URLs, and widgets. With Homerise, pulling up the morning paper in VR is just the beginning.
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Homerise recognizes which room you’re in and visualizes the walls even in darkness to the naked eye. With a fully HomeKit-equipped house, that means fans, security cameras, lights, electrical outlets and many more accessories can all be controlled with no visible buttons or display of any kind, except inside the headset. I placed controls for my lights on the wall next to my bed where I could reach over and change brightness by running my finger along the wall. It’s easier just to look and pinch though. Though Apple’s own Home app supports air conditioners, the Homerise app said it didn’t support that particular device in my home yet.
Homerise works like a layer on top of your physical world. You can snap controls onto your walls, for instance, even when the lights are off. And then, naturally, use the controls to turn on the lights from total darkness just by looking at the control and pinching. In homes where there are a large number of lights that can be adjusted in brightness or color, Homerise might be the best way to set the vibes in each room of the house. Simply place virtual controls next to the physical objects they represent and adjust their settings while looking around at the effects of each tiny adjustment.
You can also set specific playlists up on the walls, as well as automated scenes that would essentially add one-pinch setup for a room’s vibe. I haven’t quite tested those last features yet but I absolutely will. That I could load UploadVR, log into the New York Times and read BBC simultaneously while looking at a VR sunset is enough of a proof of concept here that visionOS, and the developers of impressive multifaceted apps like ReelRoom, CubicLayer, and Homerise, are ready to augment large chunks of life with layers passed through VR.
