Magic Leap
A little leap of faith, a little piece of Magic
Touted as one of the biggest tech mysteries in the 21st century, Magic Leap, founded by Rony Abovitz in 2010, is a startup from suburban Florida. It raised $1.4 billion from tech giants like Google and Alibaba, even before unveiling its first product! It is no longer a mystery though, as since then, it has duly unveiled its products.
Magic Leap One, the head mounted retinal display that Magic Leap was working on was released on 8th August 2018, priced at $2,295, nearly 8 years after the launch of the company.
Magic Leap One provides a vision of mixed reality, using silicon photonic chips. It overlays 3D computer-generated imagery like game characters over objects in the real world by “projecting a digital light field into the user’s eye”, without putting a strain on the user’s eyes.
It has 3 components: the headset called Lightwear; a disc-shaped computer that you can clip to your pocket called Lightpack and a controller called Control (a very descriptive naming process).
The headset is scattered with cameras both inward and outward facing to track eye movements and map the environment around at the same time.
Unlike Microsoft’s Hololens which weighs 1.25 pounds, Magic Leap One is comparatively light, weighing only 0.76 pounds which makes it easy to put on and comfortable to use for hours. It supports a wider field of view for the user. The heaviest object in the package is the Lightpack, which carries the volume of the processing power for the Magic Leap One. It is meant to be clipped to the user’s pocket or the user can purchase the shoulder strap provided by Magic Leap to carry it.
Some users have complained that when objects get too close, they start disappearing, which is a glaring issue and needs to be solved. However, once solved, this just might be one of the most sophisticated revolutions in the field of IT. The start of something big? Maybe.
