When a Google-backed “cinematic reality” company called Magic Leap released a cryptic video on YouTube last year, people were justifiably curious.
When it was announced a few months later that they were in the middle of an $827 million funding round, that curiosity drummed up to a gentle roar.
Designed to be a competitor to Microsoft’s HoloLens, Google-backed Magic Leap has finally started showing off what its semitransparent augmented-reality/mixed-reality headsets are capable of.
After getting an exclusive firsthand look at it, Wired has confirmed what we all suspected: it’s kind of a big deal.
See?
The secretive startup’s headset allows virtual images and graphics to be overlaid over the actual world, such that the wearer is still able to distinguish between the two. The conduit is a lense-like tech component not unlike Google glass in form that Magic Leap calls a “photonic lightfield chip.”
Details (including a potential release date) about the project are tough to come by, but one thing we do know is that investors have already dumped in $1.4 billion. “Ours is a journey of inner space,” says Magic Leap founder Rony Abovitz, “We are building the internet of presence and experience.”
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