Magic Leap Unveils New Mixed-Reality Glasses

Magic Leap has finally unveiled their headset, and the product they showed off does look rather polished, if in a 1930’s Sci-Fi goggle-eyed fashion.

The Magic Leap goggles are called Lightwear that can be seen through like a pair of glasses and are filled with sensors and cameras to make “mixed reality” happen, the company detailed to Rolling Stone. A wireless controller is used as input.

Lightpack is what powers Magic Leap One, and it’s essentially a small computer with the same power as a MacBook Pro that’s been condensed into a circular package that can easily be attached to your belt or pocket.

In October 2015, Magic Leap announced it had raised $542 million in funding, led by Google.

Magic Leap is calling its glasses Lightwear, the battery pack Lightpack, and the controller is called Control.

According to the website Magic Leap One will initially ship as a “Creator’s Edition”, presumably to get developers on board. Refer to the video and gallery below for some depictions of Magic Leap’s first product and its applications.

Magic Leap’s site lists several use cases for the headset, including web browsing and shopping, opening up multiple virtual monitors and telepresence. Here are some of the experiences we’ve been exploring, but they are just a jumping-off point.

The company believes its first commercialized offering will revolutionize computer interfaces, being powered by a photonic chip and combining the very cutting edge of technologies like computer vision, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and light field signal generation.

In addition, once this digital map has been created, the Magic Leap One platform will remember exactly where it left any virtual elements for future use. “We have that stuff working in the labs”, he said, Rolling Stone reported.

Whatever Magic Leap ends up shipping, the company has said sworn that its augmented-reality technology is second-to-none. The tethered device doesn’t look large enough to house laptop-class hardware, but Magic Leap claimed that it delivers laptop-like performance. Also in early 2018, the Creator Portal will be opened up, offering access to the software development kit, which will include tools, documentation, and learning resources. The price has not yet been disclosed.

A Magic Leap spokesperson told Business Insider at the time that these are not Magic Leap’s product.

The next step after smartphones is nearly certainly some form of augmented reality – at least, that’s what investors believe, to the point where they’ve pumped $1.9 billion into Magic Leap, a Florida-based startup that creates AR headsets.