edit:
New patent image
So what is Magic Leap?
http://www.magicleap.com/#/home
This is a tough one to answer, because no one really knows a bunch about it yet - or if they do, they aren't talking. However there is enough info here and there to get a simple idea of what it is/should be.
An augmented reality(AR)/virtual reality(VR) headset. There's more to it, but that's -basically- what it's supposed to be. And it seems like it's supposed to be both, I'll get into that later.
Here is a link to a patent filed by the company
What's the tech like?
So for this, I'll defer to a better explanation than I can give, to technologyreview:
So that describes basically what is different from other VR/AR solutions - which, as far as I understand, is a pretty significant accomplishment. That being said, there would still be hurdles to get a really seamless AR experience (which is mentioned in the technology review article) - like having the headset understand and map the world around you to then interact with. For example, let's say you'd want to have a little virtual pet running around you, following you around - the headset would need to have a virtual version of the world around you, your position in said world, what you are looking at and then decide where to place this pet and how it interacts with things (so it doesn't for example, walk through your couch breaking the illusion, but walks behind your couch).
There are stirrings that this is being handled as well:
So it looks like, at the very least it has/is being looked into. Having an AR experience that can map the world around you is a pretty big deal.
Why is this any different than any other overhyped VR/AR experience?
Well, first - everything gets me hype. That being said, this is still a question mark, we haven't seen a public display of this tech yet and what it really means is still being kept a secret - so in this section, I am going to mix rumour, news and my opinion to give you an idea of why I think this is something that you should at least keep an eye on.
1. Google led 542 mil investment in October
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhu...-leap-a-mysterious-cinematic-reality-company/
So this is probably what you've heard about this product so far, a lot of buzz around this monstrous amount of money, most of which seems to have come out of Google's pockets.
Now any company getting this sort of money is going to turn heads, but getting so much directly from Google - not Google Ventures, I think means that Google is looking at this as a big deal, and potentially an acquisition. Google, the company behind the not-yet-successful Google Glass investing in an AR/VR headset I think says a lot, but what it says is really hard to pin down. Regardless, it's not just money Google seems to be investing, as Sundar Pichai is also going to be sitting on the board of the company.
I think that this potentially means that Google is looking to replace their current 'AR' experience (Google Glass) with something, well, better. Google Glass is not really AR in any meaningful way, and while they dressed this up as a conscious decision to prevent over-immersion or whatever, I think this was more of a tech constraint - anyone who wants to do AR wants to do real AR - having a floating box that you have to strain to look at isn't the dream. And with the buzz around Google Glass dying down, and even the enthusiast developers walking away disappointed (often because of the lack of real AR opportunities), Google (in my opinion) needs to pivot, and this might be the right direction to pivot too.
2. Team behind Gravity's FX working on a magic leap project that will be shown off next year
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30056232
So it looks like some of the best FX developers in the world are going to be using this as a platform, or rather, the first public facing tech demo is going to be based off of their work, which feels like it could be a big thing. I'm still unsure of what the demo will be, but if you look up previous magic leap info from months back, you might stumble across a TED talk where the team does some weird talk with space being a focal point, so it seems like it's the dream demo for that team - whether or not this impresses the masses I think will be an important milestone in this potential product's lifecylce.
3. Scott Henry, Beats CTO is hired as CTO of Magic Leap
http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/08/s...ty-startup-magic-leap-hires-former-beats-cfo/
This was announced today, and I'm not really well versed enough with CFO work to know what this could potentially mean, but my gut says this is going to be about positioning this device as a social icon, and my heart hopes this isn't about wildly inflating it's cost (this should already be pricey enough without that).
4. Project Tango?
https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/#project
So this is puuuure speculation, so remember that. Project tango is a moonshot by Google, to create a platform using smart tools and sensors that can A. Map the world in 3D and B. interact with said mapped world. Google has a lot of experience in this space, when you look at Google Earth/Maps/Street view/Self Driving Cars - they may in fact be the leaders in the space of machine vision. This could be a huge opportunity for both project tango and magic leap, and I hope that there is a convergence here.
Final thoughts
So, this could end up turning to vaporware. It happens, even with a shitload of investment. But let's play in hypotheticals for a bit, and paint the (in my mind) best case scenario. You get a headset of ???? cost, it syncs up to your smartphone and has the following capabilities:
1. It can give you a full AR experience, in which everything from virtual pets that follow you around and interact with the environment, to a 'wikipedia' mode that could for example help you identify plants by just looking at them while out camping.
2. If this can cover your full field of vision (which seems to be what might end up happening), this could also be a very good VR experience, with hype claiming it would be better than the Oculus Rift of today fundamentally, because of the tech involved.
If this actually comes to fruition, I'd be very happy. I've always wanted full AR, and I was really hoping for something good out of Google Glass - but it's disappointing me in terms of capabilities - however it has seemed to spur on the field, and maybe played a hand in the inception of this device. Maybe not, it doesn't matter - but my point is, this might be more in line with what I -really- want out of AR.
That being said, because of how fundamentally my sort of AR would change the world, any potential products that are rumoured to 'meet the requirements' should probably be looked at critically and without too much hype, not until we can see something for real. But this is more promising than anything else I've seen so far!
New patent image
So this is something I've been following for a few months, and lately it's been picking up steam so I wanted to share with GAF - this info might be applicable for gaming as well, but for now I think OT might be the best place to talk about it.
So what is Magic Leap?
http://www.magicleap.com/#/home
This is a tough one to answer, because no one really knows a bunch about it yet - or if they do, they aren't talking. However there is enough info here and there to get a simple idea of what it is/should be.
An augmented reality(AR)/virtual reality(VR) headset. There's more to it, but that's -basically- what it's supposed to be. And it seems like it's supposed to be both, I'll get into that later.
Here is a link to a patent filed by the company
What's the tech like?
So for this, I'll defer to a better explanation than I can give, to technologyreview:
So that describes basically what is different from other VR/AR solutions - which, as far as I understand, is a pretty significant accomplishment. That being said, there would still be hurdles to get a really seamless AR experience (which is mentioned in the technology review article) - like having the headset understand and map the world around you to then interact with. For example, let's say you'd want to have a little virtual pet running around you, following you around - the headset would need to have a virtual version of the world around you, your position in said world, what you are looking at and then decide where to place this pet and how it interacts with things (so it doesn't for example, walk through your couch breaking the illusion, but walks behind your couch).
There are stirrings that this is being handled as well:
One of Magic Leap’s patents covers the use of motion sensors and eye-tracking cameras on a wearable display to figure out at what depth a person’s eyes are focused. But Wetzstein says he isn’t aware of anyone yet demonstrating a wearable system that can track the distance a person is focusing on.
Another of Magic Leap’s patent filings says that cameras, infrared sensors, and ultrasonic sensors could be used to sense the environment around a person, and to recognize gestures. Depth-sensing cameras are now relatively cheap and compact (see “Intel Says Tablets and Laptops with 3-D Vision Are Coming Soon”. But Wetzstein says Magic Leap will likely need to make major breakthroughs in computer vision software for a wearable device to make sense of the world enough for very rich augmented reality. “They will require very powerful 3-D image recognition, running on your head-mounted display,” he says.
So it looks like, at the very least it has/is being looked into. Having an AR experience that can map the world around you is a pretty big deal.
Why is this any different than any other overhyped VR/AR experience?
Well, first - everything gets me hype. That being said, this is still a question mark, we haven't seen a public display of this tech yet and what it really means is still being kept a secret - so in this section, I am going to mix rumour, news and my opinion to give you an idea of why I think this is something that you should at least keep an eye on.
1. Google led 542 mil investment in October
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ellenhu...-leap-a-mysterious-cinematic-reality-company/
So this is probably what you've heard about this product so far, a lot of buzz around this monstrous amount of money, most of which seems to have come out of Google's pockets.
Now any company getting this sort of money is going to turn heads, but getting so much directly from Google - not Google Ventures, I think means that Google is looking at this as a big deal, and potentially an acquisition. Google, the company behind the not-yet-successful Google Glass investing in an AR/VR headset I think says a lot, but what it says is really hard to pin down. Regardless, it's not just money Google seems to be investing, as Sundar Pichai is also going to be sitting on the board of the company.
I think that this potentially means that Google is looking to replace their current 'AR' experience (Google Glass) with something, well, better. Google Glass is not really AR in any meaningful way, and while they dressed this up as a conscious decision to prevent over-immersion or whatever, I think this was more of a tech constraint - anyone who wants to do AR wants to do real AR - having a floating box that you have to strain to look at isn't the dream. And with the buzz around Google Glass dying down, and even the enthusiast developers walking away disappointed (often because of the lack of real AR opportunities), Google (in my opinion) needs to pivot, and this might be the right direction to pivot too.
2. Team behind Gravity's FX working on a magic leap project that will be shown off next year
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-30056232
So it looks like some of the best FX developers in the world are going to be using this as a platform, or rather, the first public facing tech demo is going to be based off of their work, which feels like it could be a big thing. I'm still unsure of what the demo will be, but if you look up previous magic leap info from months back, you might stumble across a TED talk where the team does some weird talk with space being a focal point, so it seems like it's the dream demo for that team - whether or not this impresses the masses I think will be an important milestone in this potential product's lifecylce.
3. Scott Henry, Beats CTO is hired as CTO of Magic Leap
http://venturebeat.com/2014/12/08/s...ty-startup-magic-leap-hires-former-beats-cfo/
This was announced today, and I'm not really well versed enough with CFO work to know what this could potentially mean, but my gut says this is going to be about positioning this device as a social icon, and my heart hopes this isn't about wildly inflating it's cost (this should already be pricey enough without that).
4. Project Tango?
https://www.google.com/atap/projecttango/#project
So this is puuuure speculation, so remember that. Project tango is a moonshot by Google, to create a platform using smart tools and sensors that can A. Map the world in 3D and B. interact with said mapped world. Google has a lot of experience in this space, when you look at Google Earth/Maps/Street view/Self Driving Cars - they may in fact be the leaders in the space of machine vision. This could be a huge opportunity for both project tango and magic leap, and I hope that there is a convergence here.
Final thoughts
So, this could end up turning to vaporware. It happens, even with a shitload of investment. But let's play in hypotheticals for a bit, and paint the (in my mind) best case scenario. You get a headset of ???? cost, it syncs up to your smartphone and has the following capabilities:
1. It can give you a full AR experience, in which everything from virtual pets that follow you around and interact with the environment, to a 'wikipedia' mode that could for example help you identify plants by just looking at them while out camping.
2. If this can cover your full field of vision (which seems to be what might end up happening), this could also be a very good VR experience, with hype claiming it would be better than the Oculus Rift of today fundamentally, because of the tech involved.
If this actually comes to fruition, I'd be very happy. I've always wanted full AR, and I was really hoping for something good out of Google Glass - but it's disappointing me in terms of capabilities - however it has seemed to spur on the field, and maybe played a hand in the inception of this device. Maybe not, it doesn't matter - but my point is, this might be more in line with what I -really- want out of AR.
That being said, because of how fundamentally my sort of AR would change the world, any potential products that are rumoured to 'meet the requirements' should probably be looked at critically and without too much hype, not until we can see something for real. But this is more promising than anything else I've seen so far!
