Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality, Digital Reality. We all are wondering “What Who How When Why!?”.
To better understand what our future will look like when the Magic Leap Head-Mount comes out, we need a little background on Magic Leap’s CEO, Rony Abovitz:
Rony was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He was transplanted to South Florida when his parents decided to enjoy the warm weather. He attended University of Miami (U.M) where he got a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering. (Funny story aside, my goal was to get a PhD in Nanotechnology and the Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering degree at U.M was a step towards it. The high fees of UM prevented me from following this degree which lead me to select computer science at FIU instead).
Rony then co-created a bio-mechanical company (Mako Surgical) that was acquired for about $2B by Stryker. This allowed Rony to work on bigger projects, as the true visionary that he is. Looking at Rony’s experience, it is obvious that Magic Leap’s devices will revolutionize the medical field. Also, Rony has experience creating devices that merge human lives with technology as his former company Mako created the first haptic robotic arm. The core component of Magic Leap’s head-mount is said to be inspired by a device he encountered while working in the medical field. A cable that can transport a hi-definition image then projects it as natural light onto the human eye. The cable sends a digital light directly onto the eyes which tricks the brain into thinking that the video coming from this light is as real as the world we live in.
What does Magic Leap make?
Magic Leap is making a mixed reality device. The concept is very similar to Microsoft Hololens and Oculus Rift but it differs by blending the digital light field signal coming from their device into the natural light which tricks the brain into thinking they are integrated together. The brain is used as the computing power that will do the work of rendering the virtual world. Magic Leap diverges from its competitors in the way that it does not have any pixels, the perception is believable to your brain as being real.
That device will be portable, made of a powerful CPU, GPU, which uses a real-time sensing computer system to let us interact with a cloud computing system that allows people to interact.
Many interviewers have called the device “goggles” but Rony is quick to correct them.
What would you use Magic Leap’s device for?
The Magic leap team says it’s obvious the device enhances entertainment, media and games, but Rony stresses out that the device has its place in the business world as it will increase productivity.
Sam Milton, director or systems engineering at magic leap describes it as “Dreaming with your eyes open”.
What does magicleap the device look like?
As of late 2016, it is still unknown what it will really looks like, but expect it would look like regular glasses connected to a device via a cable. You’d keep this device in your pocket. The lenses a transparent 3d wafer components.
Note: The device ‘s real design might be hidden in the reflection of this metallic box
What is Magic Leap logo?
The Magicleap logo looks like a rainbow-colored ghost looking straight, but it actually is a whale. Since Rony grew up in Florida, he grew up diving and feels connected to the ocean. He probably wanted to put a shark for the logo, but a shark is fearful for people to adopt a new technology that already has created tensions. That’s why Magic Leap went with a whale which is still a powerful sea mammal, but harmful at the same time since it only eats planktons.
How does Magic Leap sees the future?
You wake up, you smart assistant pops up, takes a look at your schedule and gives you an overview of what you’re going to do today and give you suggestion about what you should eat depending on what how was your eating behavior in the previous days.
Let’s say you want to talk to your mom, she will pop up just like if she was in the same room as you. You feel like she’s there and you have a conversation just like this.
When is Magic Leap coming out?
Magic leap release date has not officially come out but we already know that thee first batch of production is coming summer 2016. Now these devices will not be available for the public. These are pilot products meant for improving their production line and also to give away to key entities and companies to create and test the first wave of software, apps and games. It looks like magicleap could already be shipping but they have an “Apple”-like mentality and want to release only the best. (They actually refer magic leap as being a mini Apple inc.)
What can you do with the magic leap device?
At this point we have a general idea of what it does and what it can potentially do in the near future. The Mixed Reality (MR) functionality of the magic leap product will be based on the following 4 pillars / categories:
– games
– media
– communication
– information
It’s worth mentioning that mixed reality can enhance your experience with the real world by adding objects within the real word, but it can also enhance this experience by removing things from the real world by masking them. For example, you could remove all the advertising banners on the side of a highway or remove the advertising banners of a video game, erasing its content by masking it with the content of your choosing, such as your tweeter feed or your family photos.
– Graeme Devine
Behind every epic story stands a great wizard
(Yohann Taieb, yours truly)
And so it goes for Magic Leap too with their Chief Game Wizard named Graeme Devine. Never heard of him? You sure have heard of what he’s worked on during his 40+ year career in game development. He’s worked on Doom 3, Quake 3, and the 7th Guest just to name a few.
He is more than a game developer, he is a visionary that has gone through multiple major phases of the game industry and he is ready to shape the Mixed Reality revolution so that we end up in a better world full of nice Jedis and Yodas instead of Dark Siths. He is a kid at heart and prides himself to tell everyone he still plays with Legos, which makes him a visionary where the word impossible has no meaning.
He said is himself that Magic Leap is here to help humans whether it means they make an MR head-mount or build flying cars.
The following image shows an actual gameplay of a mixed reality video game featuring a robot and a raygun made by Weta Workshops, a special effects and prop company producing effects for television and film like the Lord of the Rings.
Conclusion:
I will end on a quote from Confucius, written 2500 years ago:
“Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I’ll remember, Involve me and I will understand.”
Mixed Reality is the involvement step, which will make us understand more, faster, allowing us to do more, faster.
Now is your turn to CHANGE THE WORLD by using the comments below to share ideas on how to use this technology.