Apple's highly rumored AR head-mounted display device could be developed with Valve, according to a report.

Digitimes.com claims that the AR headset may be released in the second half of 2020 at the earliest, with Taiwan's ODMs Quanta Computer and Pegatron said to handle the assembly job.

Apple made no comment.

Last month, Apple confirmed its acquisition of UK-based visual effects company iKinema, which develops “full body” motion-capture software for games and movies. iKinema’s technology can be used to turn video footage of a person’s physical movements into animated characters.

iKinema had marketed its products as producing digital animations that are “more realistic and cheaper to produce and maintain”, for use in virtual reality, games and even live television.

The acquisition could be related to Apple's push into augmented reality.

In addition, Apple last summer hired Nat Brown, former engineer for Valve’s virtual reality (VR) team and co-creator of the original Xbox. Brown had said that he’d be focusing on “graphics” on Apple platforms.

Apple has also has roped in veteran VR researcher Doug Bowman, Zeyu Li from Magic Leap, and Yury Petrov, a former research scientist at Facebook’s Oculus, as core professionals for its AR projects.

In recent years, Apple has made several small acquisitions of AR companies to build or bolster its ARKit platform, including Metaio, Flyby Media, Emotient and Faceshift, as well as several start-ups that could provide components for a future AR headset, such as Akonia Holographics, Vrvana and SensoMotoric Instruments.