Headset

SAN FRANCISCO - When Apple held a corporate retreat in California's Carmel Valley about five years ago to discuss its next major product, Jony Ive, its longtime design chief, captivated a room of the company's 100 top executives with a concept video as polished as an Apple commercial.

2016 was the year that virtual reality (VR) was successfully introduced to the consumer market. But industry giants Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook are already working towards creating augmented reality devices that some are touting as the “next big thing”.

Wearing black headsets with tentacle-like sensors stretched over their foreheads, the competitors stare at cubes floating on computer screens as their small white drones prepare for takeoff.