Building an AI Companion for Vision Pro

The Vision

I'm building an AI companion for Apple Vision Pro: a 3D avatar I can see, talk to, and interact with across all my virtual experiences.

The goal is a production system, not a weekend experiment. I'm building it to:

• Learn languages through real-world conversation
• Answer questions while reading technical documentation
• Join me in gaming experiences
• Maintain presence and context across different spatial environments

Why Vision Pro

I purchased Vision Pro because I believe spatial computing is the platform of the future. Not in 5 years. Now.

The hardware exists. The APIs exist. The only thing missing is the software that makes spatial computing feel essential rather than novel.

The Architecture

This companion requires integrating multiple complex systems:

1. 3D Avatar System - RealityKit entities with skeletal animation
2. Speech Pipeline - Real-time voice recognition and synthesis
3. AI Brain - Context-aware language model integration
4. Animation Controller - Lip sync and responsive body language
5. Spatial Context - Understanding and adapting to different environments

The Approach

Rather than rushing to code, I'm starting with fundamentals:

Week 1-2: Swift Foundation

Understanding the language, type system, and SwiftUI patterns.

Week 2-3: visionOS Mental Model

Windows, Volumes, Immersive Spaces: how spatial computing actually works.

Week 3-5: RealityKit & 3D

Loading models, animations, spatial audio, and entity management.

Week 5-7: Speech & AI Integration

Connecting voice input to AI reasoning to audio output.

Week 7-8: First Milestone

A 3D avatar standing in space, speaking intelligently in response to my voice.

Following Along

I'll document every step of this journey here. The successes, the roadblocks, the architectural decisions, and the lessons learned.

This blog exists to capture the process of building production software for a platform that's still defining itself.

Next post: Swift fundamentals and the visionOS development environment setup.