The Magic Leap 2 — Gemini
From the earliest days of Magic Leap, the team and I discussed a mission framework which resembled 1960s NASA: Mercury, Gemini, & Apollo.
We envisioned these systems in parallel, each becoming a proof of technical capabilities and steps in a series of cycles of learning (many agile loops) that would lead to a system which could become an XR holy grail: all day, everyday, everyone, and everywhere.
The research, development, engineering, and design thinking behind Gemini (Magic Leap 2) began before Mercury (Magic Leap One) shipped in 2018. Hundreds of scientists, engineers, and designers worked on the Magic Leap 2, including many of the same people who worked on the Magic Leap One (often in parallel).
These teams brought the Magic Leap 2 to life and into production in early 2020 — at which point their work and many lives were disrupted by the global pandemic and the economic crash that came with it. In the last months, weeks, and days before the pandemic, we knew that we had something special.
It is wonderful to see the recognition that the Magic Leap 2, as it rolls out into the world, is receiving. It has won two of the world’s top design awards: IF Gold and the Red Dot Design. The Magic Leap 2 was also named Best In Show at the Augmented World Expo 2022.
https://ifdesign.com/en/winner-ranking/project/magic-leap-2/348548
The majority of the original OG Magic Leap team, the teams that designed and built the company, the Magic Leap One, the Magic Leap 2 (and beyond) are now elsewhere. The OG Magic Leap team is like a band that wrote, recorded, and produced an album — but the pandemic disrupted its release, and now there is a new band that will tour the album.
To the OG Magic Leap teams (pre-pandemic): you sacrificed endless hours, days, nights, and weekends to push the envelope and to help create the field of XR. You put in the best of your creativity, intelligence, sweat, blood, and spirit. Your work does have meaning, and it will touch people’s lives. It will have an impact. You built something incredible and cool. All of you rock.
To the new Magic Leap teams (post-pandemic): thank you for carrying the torch, and I hope that you fulfill the best of the vision and technologies that can make XR soar. Real artists ship — I know the Magic Leap OG team is deeply thankful to see their work of art, the Magic Leap 2, ship :-)
R. Abovitz
June 20th, 2022
Earth
(typo revision + album image on June 22, 2022)
