It's interesting reading startup literature regarding MVPs and iterating quickly and notice that almost none of it applies to the AR/VR space. Between Magic Leap and Ubiquty6 it seems like the most interesting players in AR are more notable for their funding rounds than for anything else. Magic Leap is rolling out their own hardware so it's more understandable but its really hard to justify spending $2K on a first generation AR device.
If I had to put money on it I think Magic Leap will go the way of General Magic, lots of cool tech and ideas in a product that was ultimately too expensive and too late to drive the company forward but will be looked upon as a great innovator once another company uses their inventions and packages it in a low cost, user friendly interface.
Their only (admittedly public) rival in the space is Microsoft, and adoption of HoloLens even as a developer platform hasn't exactly been groundbreaking.
There are still many laps left 'til the finish line.
I know they barely count, but there was a whole slough of little cardboard boxes you could like... slide your phone into and "experience a 360 VR environment" that seemed like MVPs to me.
Are they planning a sort of technical deep dive/developer Q&A? The page reeks of marketing and is extremely lax on any kind of substantial details that would make me want to purchase one of these things.
I've enjoyed my vive and rift since they both came out, and I'd love to try this gadget out. It doesn't appear to be worth the cost at face value though.
I'm shocked, I say shocked, that something from Magic Leap could possibly be said to reek of marketing.
You should spend the next six minutes and seventeen seconds of your life watching this amazing piece of public relations magic that transparently unveils the deep truth of what Magic Leap is really all about:
The synthesis of imagination: Rony Abovitz and Magic Leap at TEDxSarasota
What happened to Magic Leap's advanced photonic lightfield chip? I thought the thing that made Magic Leap special was their light field tech, but this just appears to be stacked wave guides, which other than having 2 focal planes seems to be the same tech as Hololens.
It never existed and was never going to exist, except as marketing and investor hype. Same with their fiber-scanning display, and everything else that doesn’t add up to, “like a Hololens, but with a much dimmer view of the real world and more useless patents.”
Quote from Palmer Luckey in that blog: “The ML1 is a not a “lightfield projector” or display by any broadly accepted definition, and as a Bi-Focal Display, only solves vergence-accommodation conflict in contrived demos that put all UI and environmental elements at one of two focus planes. Mismatch occurs at all other depths. In much the same way, a broken clock displays the correct time twice a day.“
Downvotes aside, are there any actual counterpoints to be offered to this critique? It is like a Hololens, it does have a dimmer view, it doesn’t match their many promises and early patents, it is slightly cheaper and has a slightly better FOV than HL, but it’s also wired to their Lightpack. All in all I’d say the investors should be carrying pitchforks and torches.
Magic Leap raised boatloads of money, which game me the impression that they are really building something mass market that can be useful for most people in this world. I am not into gaming and have kids, so cannot wear AR glasses in my home and walk around. Are there use cases for Magic Leap that support non gamers ? Or is it mostly a niche product like an Oculus ?
>Are there use cases for Magic Leap that support non gamers ? Or is it mostly a niche product like an Oculus ?
AR will definitely be the way forward for all computing. This brief awkward period of 50ish years using analog inputs and physical screens which we are currently living through will be seen as a blip in the history of human-computer interaction hundreds of years from now. However the only use case for this iteration of the technology is for developers to begin working on new interaction paradigms and app ideas for AR in general. We're still years away from true consumer tech but I can admit as someone very familiar with VR/AR hardware that the Magic Leap One is a solid evolutionary step forward from what we've seen so far. I'm not impressed enough to buy one yet, but at least the company has shown they aren't total vaporware at this point and hopefully they can keep improving.
Is an Oculus niche? I brought my Go on a family vacation last month, and after trying it on, both my sisters wanted one. Neither are people I would say have ever gamed much before, but after they experienced it, they were sold.
I'm cautiously optimistic about using this for data visualizations in AR. I've messed around with genomic models using Hololense and have found that AR works better then VR in a lab or collaborative environment where there is benefit to seeing others while looking at the same augmented reality. I'm curious if this will be better for medical imaging and other biological sequence visualizations (then Holo lense). Better in this case would translate to more accurate tracking of my eyes, interaction with the built environment, and higher quality resolution. I still am yearning for a AR experience that let's me walk through my databases and interact a la Minority Report or my personal favorite movie-reference to VR "Disclosure" featuring Michael Douglas and Demi Moore https://youtu.be/dJcakDNtHDA
Curious--how is the font rendering/text quality? Example, working with digital cards with a title, short description, maybe numbers (currency/stats etc), reading them quickly and organizing them. I'm familiar with Oculus, so maybe in general and compared to the Rift?
Well if you are privileged to invest in Magic Leap One, they probably aren't hurting...no sympathy from me when their plans to buy a yacht is ruined :/
It is backed by Google so there is probably plans to improve the hardware which as it stands is not impressive OR knowing Google they could pull the plug just as easily.
In fact, Magic Leap One, is looking to be a major major flop, shortly after somebody released a review on the limited focal view and some annoying hardware designs I knew it was fucked.
Cool to see tech like this moving forward. Still think we're 5-10 years off from folks really adopting this stuff heavily (especially with a higher price point like this), but man, it's going to get wild. $50 says one day Alexa will just be sitting on your couch, taking on whatever form you'd like (e.g., Bill Murray, snacking on Fig Newtons waiting for commands).
Does anyone know what would be a good way to start dabbling in developing environments/experiences for these and other AR devices?
unity has a pretty beginner-friendly toolset for windows mixed reality, I would check that out for sure. In terms of getting an AR capable device, I think some of the screen only (not holograms but camera-based to display) MR devices are relatively cheap, somewhere in the $200-500 USD range. It's a pretty fun experience, maybe you'll have an interesting use case :)
I remember the first articles about this super secretive start up from not the Silicon Valley, that did some super amazing stuff, loads of VC-cash and all that.
This thing now looks really underwhelming. The pages full of marketing talk to present basically another (better, maybe) HoloLens.
Sadly not available for my area, but I was happy to see the note about prescriptions. Thats probably one of my biggest complaints about the Rift and others is that it gets pretty uncomfortable with glasses on.
You can't buy them yet, which made the system barely usable for me. It comes with an empty frame that accommodates round lenses. I popped the lenses out of an old pair of glasses and ground them to the right size and shape with a belt sander, and it works OK. You can eyeball the size accurately enough to fit snugly in the rubber frame.
I had to buy a pair of glasses specifically to fit under my rift, I bought the smallest kids glasses I could find that I could get with my prescription. They look ridiculous, but that's ok. It was much cheaper than buying prescription inserts, I would have to special order them since my prescription is fairly high.
> We created a new kind of computer so we built a whole new operating system. One that gets the most out of our spatial computing system by working in tandem with digital lightfields and the brain. Lumin OS is fully optimized for environment recognition, persistent digital content and the performance to power high-fidelity visual experiences that turns your wildest imagination into even wilder realities.
Super curious if it's built from the ground up or a mod of an existing OS.
"Magic Leap says they have “built a whole new operating system” called LuminOS to take advantage of their “spatial computing system“. It is actually just Android with custom stuff on top, the same approach most people take when they want to claim they have built a whole operating system... I hope Magic Leap does cool stuff in the future, but the current UI is basically an Android Wear watch menu that floats in front of you."
"Magic Leap is best known for its hardware, but the roughly 1,500-person company has a large software team as well, and the Magic Leap One has a functional operating system and starting app suite. Its Linux-based Lumen OS…"[1]
"There's also information on the Magic Leap's Lumin OS, a custom-built operating system based on open source/Linux tools."[2]
Chiming in on the questions regarding use cases etc.:
Aside from letting artists and engineers paint/sculpt/model more intuitively in 3D space, I still believe that the killer app for VR on the consumer side would be virtual tourism.
Coming full circle to the View-Master [0], except this time people could practically live in their favorite fantasy or sci-fi locations.
Imagine being part of the crew on the USS Enterprise, or idling the hours away smoking the halflings' leaf in the Shire..
Right now though, VR is just a fancy display tech, but with lower [apparent] resolution than many existing 2D displays and comparatively poor, often fatigue-inducing interactivity in almost all cases, apart from the aforementioned placement of 3D objects.
Why has nobody dared to drop the pretenses yet, and actually take VR to the level it professes to be: supplanting reality?
Make it more than just a display.
Invent some kind of cabin with climate control and aromatic components, that lets your other senses and your entire body feel like you're someplace else. Feel the tropical wind on your face without leaving the concrete jungle of your megacity.
Of course at first such tech would be too expense to have in most people's homes. So you might also usher in a renaissance of public arcades; VRcades? :)
People could start going there as an alternative to expensive vacations.
I'm skeptic about virtual tourism.
We already have 4K HDR screens that display gorgeous pictures, but people still go to the museum to admire paintings.
Tourism is more of a social act than a content-consumption one. People brag when they go to the museum, but never when they binge-watch paintings at 3 AM on the Internet.
I guess you answered your own question. There is a cart/horse problem with VR/AR. The tech isn't quite there, so no one wants to buy it, and people aren't going to improve it unless the money is there. And since people aren't buying it, the money isn't there...so the tech isn't quite there...
Any developers actively creating (and sharing) interesting stuff for the device? The examples on their website feel like stuff I’ve seen before. I’d be interested in hearing about the good things and the challenges of developing for their platform and for AR in general
Is it just AR? Or is it something different? All the hype for so many years showed console level graphics in the ads but the real videos show low quality android level graphics.
"Both the real world and virtual light rays initiate neural signals that pass from the retina to the visual part of the brain, creating unbelievably believable experiences."
[+] [-] 40acres|7 years ago|reply
If I had to put money on it I think Magic Leap will go the way of General Magic, lots of cool tech and ideas in a product that was ultimately too expensive and too late to drive the company forward but will be looked upon as a great innovator once another company uses their inventions and packages it in a low cost, user friendly interface.
[+] [-] oihoaihsfoiahsf|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dantheman|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eganist|7 years ago|reply
Their only (admittedly public) rival in the space is Microsoft, and adoption of HoloLens even as a developer platform hasn't exactly been groundbreaking.
There are still many laps left 'til the finish line.
[+] [-] sharkweek|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gowld|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mr_toad|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kadendogthing|7 years ago|reply
I've enjoyed my vive and rift since they both came out, and I'd love to try this gadget out. It doesn't appear to be worth the cost at face value though.
[+] [-] DonHopkins|7 years ago|reply
You should spend the next six minutes and seventeen seconds of your life watching this amazing piece of public relations magic that transparently unveils the deep truth of what Magic Leap is really all about:
The synthesis of imagination: Rony Abovitz and Magic Leap at TEDxSarasota
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8J5BWL8oJY
[+] [-] Ajedi32|7 years ago|reply
[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrq2akzdFq8
[2]: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Magic+Leap+One+Teardown/1122...
[+] [-] blobbers|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] newfocogi|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ickwabe|7 years ago|reply
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Magic+Leap+One+Teardown/1122...
Also...
https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/23/teardown-of-magic-leap-one...
[+] [-] GW150914|7 years ago|reply
https://www.kguttag.com/2018/08/27/palmer-luckey-founder-of-...
Quote from Palmer Luckey in that blog: “The ML1 is a not a “lightfield projector” or display by any broadly accepted definition, and as a Bi-Focal Display, only solves vergence-accommodation conflict in contrived demos that put all UI and environmental elements at one of two focus planes. Mismatch occurs at all other depths. In much the same way, a broken clock displays the correct time twice a day.“
Downvotes aside, are there any actual counterpoints to be offered to this critique? It is like a Hololens, it does have a dimmer view, it doesn’t match their many promises and early patents, it is slightly cheaper and has a slightly better FOV than HL, but it’s also wired to their Lightpack. All in all I’d say the investors should be carrying pitchforks and torches.
[+] [-] jarsin|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmode|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aphextron|7 years ago|reply
AR will definitely be the way forward for all computing. This brief awkward period of 50ish years using analog inputs and physical screens which we are currently living through will be seen as a blip in the history of human-computer interaction hundreds of years from now. However the only use case for this iteration of the technology is for developers to begin working on new interaction paradigms and app ideas for AR in general. We're still years away from true consumer tech but I can admit as someone very familiar with VR/AR hardware that the Magic Leap One is a solid evolutionary step forward from what we've seen so far. I'm not impressed enough to buy one yet, but at least the company has shown they aren't total vaporware at this point and hopefully they can keep improving.
[+] [-] rpdillon|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonnydubowsky|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0xCMP|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spullara|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sbr464|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sand500|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] taurath|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pwaai|7 years ago|reply
It is backed by Google so there is probably plans to improve the hardware which as it stands is not impressive OR knowing Google they could pull the plug just as easily.
In fact, Magic Leap One, is looking to be a major major flop, shortly after somebody released a review on the limited focal view and some annoying hardware designs I knew it was fucked.
[+] [-] rglover|7 years ago|reply
Does anyone know what would be a good way to start dabbling in developing environments/experiences for these and other AR devices?
[+] [-] epmaybe|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whateveryou381|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] foobaw|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dna_polymerase|7 years ago|reply
This thing now looks really underwhelming. The pages full of marketing talk to present basically another (better, maybe) HoloLens.
[+] [-] pbnjay|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tlb|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rhinoceraptor|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jazzyjackson|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] curuinor|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] smaili|7 years ago|reply
Super curious if it's built from the ground up or a mod of an existing OS.
[+] [-] joezydeco|7 years ago|reply
http://palmerluckey.com/magic-leap-is-a-tragic-heap/
[+] [-] qeternity|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] CharlesW|7 years ago|reply
"Magic Leap is best known for its hardware, but the roughly 1,500-person company has a large software team as well, and the Magic Leap One has a functional operating system and starting app suite. Its Linux-based Lumen OS…"[1]
"There's also information on the Magic Leap's Lumin OS, a custom-built operating system based on open source/Linux tools."[2]
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/8/17662040/magic-leap-one-cr... [2] https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/19/magic-leap-first-set-ar-...
[+] [-] Razengan|7 years ago|reply
Aside from letting artists and engineers paint/sculpt/model more intuitively in 3D space, I still believe that the killer app for VR on the consumer side would be virtual tourism.
Coming full circle to the View-Master [0], except this time people could practically live in their favorite fantasy or sci-fi locations.
Imagine being part of the crew on the USS Enterprise, or idling the hours away smoking the halflings' leaf in the Shire..
Right now though, VR is just a fancy display tech, but with lower [apparent] resolution than many existing 2D displays and comparatively poor, often fatigue-inducing interactivity in almost all cases, apart from the aforementioned placement of 3D objects.
Why has nobody dared to drop the pretenses yet, and actually take VR to the level it professes to be: supplanting reality?
Make it more than just a display.
Invent some kind of cabin with climate control and aromatic components, that lets your other senses and your entire body feel like you're someplace else. Feel the tropical wind on your face without leaving the concrete jungle of your megacity.
Of course at first such tech would be too expense to have in most people's homes. So you might also usher in a renaissance of public arcades; VRcades? :)
People could start going there as an alternative to expensive vacations.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View-Master
[+] [-] arnaudsm|7 years ago|reply
Tourism is more of a social act than a content-consumption one. People brag when they go to the museum, but never when they binge-watch paintings at 3 AM on the Internet.
[+] [-] DickVanDyke|7 years ago|reply
Maybe in time.
[+] [-] mattbierner|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vijaybritto|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Raphmedia|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xutopia|7 years ago|reply
So light?
[+] [-] alexnewman|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 8bitsrule|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nickthemagicman|7 years ago|reply
[+] [-] interdrift|7 years ago|reply