top of page

Magic Leaps and bounds into Augmented Reality

By now, most people have heard of the wild growth of startups companies, or the absurd donations on crowdfunding sites like GoFundMe, but none have had the success of a secretive company called Magic Leap. The Florida based company has been gaining popularity as reports have arrived of that they have raised $500 million since their founding. That seems like a huge amount for a company that we still know very little about.

​

Their website shares the romanticized story of their founding, as well as a list of careers to be had at the company but not much else. On top of that, only a handful of people have been permitted to see what this art and technology hybrid plans to do with all of that cash. Magic Leap has given us a glimpse of their primary project in the making and if they follow through with their idea, it would be well worth the investment.

​

The founders of Magic Leap stated that it began as an art project, but soon turned into a tech company with a valuation of $6 Billion. Their backstory video talks about the founders wanting to bring computing into reality based on a love of science fiction and surrealism. They seem to have captured that essence in their newly announced product, the Magic Leap One.

​

This device is said to be a revolutionary augmented reality headset. Augmented reality is similar to virtual reality, but with the physical world being displayed as well, either directly through the headset or off a live feed. This isn’t necessarily new, but Magic Leap hopes to create a headset that allows the user to see endless three dimensional models and that interact with the user and their environment.

​

The company states that it works by projecting light onto the retina and that their design greatly surpasses virtual reality for a few reasons. It’s far less restrictive, and one of the groundbreaking features is that the headset will allow the user to look around the models through the glasses simply by moving their eyes and focusing on specific details, unlike with VR goggles.

One of the few releases from Magic Leap shows a video, reportedly shot through Magic Leap technology showing the solar system hovering on a desk with a small robot underneath. These implementations may be a taste of what’s to come but the potential for this type of technology is endless. It could be incorporated into fields like education, medicine or really anything you could think of.

​

Supposedly, the graphics for the device are going to be incredibly high quality, like a modern sci-fi movie. Magic Leap also stated that they hope the final project will be more like a pair of sunglasses than a cumbersome headset, which creates an entirely new way of conveniently using augmented or virtual reality. It should be noted, however, that these reports stem from the company themselves, so not everything can be taken as concrete fact, but their financial campaign says a lot about where they’re headed.

​

Magic Leap hasn’t had major accomplishments yet, at least publicly, but the startup has been given support from major investing sources, one being Google. This backing created a massive influx of support for their campaign and it may allow them to realize the founders’ dream of bringing computing into reality. Magic Leap may be a suitable name for a company that aims to transform the way we use technology and bring movie-like qualities that we could never accomplish on our own, into reality. It’s a lofty goal absolutely, but with the innovation that Magic Leap promises you can’t help but want to see the success story.

By Brendan Derry, Staff Writer

10/31/2017

bottom of page