
Magic Leap – Myth or Magic - aivijay
I had been following Magic Leap and seems they have an incredible technology in the making and prototypes made already. Seems if the technology matures once its out, it could replace almost most of the stuff which we have a screen with (eg., Mobile phones, tablets, laptops, display screens, TV etc). as it would just allow for all those things to exist and more in mixed reality and each individual can manage it or share it as well with others. Has anyone here experienced some of the tech in their office in Florida and how did you feel about the light field technology? I have saw some recent videos and talks online which is quite encouraging and seems its materializing.
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autoslash
I agree that it looks pretty impressive, but I'm unclear on how objects are
rendered from a user perspective. Does the user have to wear a pair of glasses
or some other viewing device to see the visualizations?

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android521
VR/MR is going to be the next platform like the internet. We need a
decentralized platform just like the web. It shouldn't be controlled by a few
big companies

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aivijay
With some of the things online, I can see that its going to be some kind of a
glass for sure. They talk about photonic lightfield chip which seems to be
almost like a pair of glasses(to be more precise lenses) but it can control
light similar to an electronic chip which controls electrons flow. Basically
they project images into those glasses which get directly projected into a
human eye at various focal lengths which gives you the sense of depth (far and
near objects etc.,). Basically the photonic chip should have multiple layers
to render images with different focal lengths. What I've read online
interprets that it will be a pair of glasses (even Abovitz mentions in one of
his talks, thats it going to be a head mounted display like a pair of glasses)
which has the lightfield photonic chips for each eye, which then gets fed from
a computing unit which the user might have in their pocket (similar in size of
a cell phone). With cameras mounted on the HMD (glasses), and doing some
SLAM(Simultaneous Localization and Mapping) on those images, they should be
able to sense the environment around you and then allow for virtual objects to
be placed appropriately to interact.

Check out the article below which gives an in-depth interpretation based on
their patents and whatever information/demos magic leap has shared in the
past.

[http://uploadvr.com/magic-leap-how-it-works/](http://uploadvr.com/magic-leap-
how-it-works/)

Magic Leap's CEO also shows the light field photonic chip which looks like a
normal piece of glass, but has the property of projecting images from a fiber
optic source at various wavelengths.

[http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/19/11457880/magic-leap-
photon...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/19/11457880/magic-leap-photonic-
lightfield-chip-features)

I am wondering whether the technology developed can be rendered in such a form
factor where its very easy to wear like grasses and use in a day to day basis.
The guys at Magic leap seem to be very confident that they have got most of
the complex pieces figured out and its already materialized. Even a developer
kit from magic leap next year or so should blow every ones mind of, if they
have got the projection of images directly to the eye working even with a
tethered system to start with.

Also read that they are planning to showcase their product sometimes the end
of the year and in CES 2017 ([http://vrworld.com/2016/04/25/magic-leap-unveil-
technology-c...](http://vrworld.com/2016/04/25/magic-leap-unveil-technology-
ces-2017/)).

Hololens from Microsoft seems to be doing something closely similar where they
are projecting images through a glass like medium. Read somewhere that
hololens was rushed to be first before Magic leap delivers its technology
though. Some recent videos form wired on Magic Leap shows some impressive
demos taken through their technology and should have a large FOV as hololens
has a very limited FOV it seems. Magic leap's CEO Abovitz seems to be very
confident that their tech is way superior to whatever exists and are not
worried about some products like hololens hitting the market earlier than
their products release.

Some refs on teardown of hololens stuff

[http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-hololens-
componen...](http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-hololens-components-
hpu-28nm,32546.html)

