Magic Leap Somehow Raised $500 Million To Make Another AR Headset (theverge.com) 19
Magic Leap has raised $500 million in funding and is preparing to release a new AR headset, the Magic Leap 2, next year, the company announced Monday. From a report: The headset will be generally available next year, the company said, and "select customers" are using it as part of an early access program. CEO Peggy Johnson said in a statement that with the new funding "Magic Leap will have greater financial flexibility and the resources needed to continue our growth trajectory as we expand on our industry-leading AR technology." She revealed the new device in an Monday appearance on CNBC.
Magic Leap, of course, is the company that began its existence as a mysterious AR startup, received almost $3 billion to fund its consumer-friendly AR headset, before changing its headset's name from Magic Leap 1 to The Magic Leap One Creator Edition in an attempt to attract professional customers. The company laid off 1,000 employees -- roughly half its workforce -- in 2020, and was reportedly abandoning its consumer business. Cofounder and CEO Rony Abovitz left the company in July 2020, and was replaced by Johnson. Magic Leap, which has previously raised $3.5 billion (according to Pitchbook), is now valued at $2 billion, down from $6 billion in 2018.
Magic Leap, of course, is the company that began its existence as a mysterious AR startup, received almost $3 billion to fund its consumer-friendly AR headset, before changing its headset's name from Magic Leap 1 to The Magic Leap One Creator Edition in an attempt to attract professional customers. The company laid off 1,000 employees -- roughly half its workforce -- in 2020, and was reportedly abandoning its consumer business. Cofounder and CEO Rony Abovitz left the company in July 2020, and was replaced by Johnson. Magic Leap, which has previously raised $3.5 billion (according to Pitchbook), is now valued at $2 billion, down from $6 billion in 2018.
Virtual Augmented Reality Headset (Score:3, Insightful)
So they never actually made the first model, and they managed to secure funding to create a new one? Wow, we really live in interesting times.
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Really? [amazon.com]
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Magic Leap, which has previously raised $3.5 billion (according to Pitchbook), is now valued at $2 billion, down from $6 billion in 2018.
Which is great, because most of that money seems to have come from people like Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins, and quite a lot of it will have been paid to ordinary people who will have bought their lunch with it and so it winds up in the economy instead of Marc Andreessen's offshore tax haven.
If Magic Leap could take all of Marc Andreessen's money so that he winds up living under a bridge the world would be a much better place. (Obviously the same app
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So they never actually made the first model
They did make the first model. But they only sold 6,000 units.
AR Religion. (Score:4, Funny)
Name change to Leap of Faith.
a very specific psychoactive effect (Score:2)
It's all about the lenses/optics (Score:3)
AR will be very cool once it gets off the ground - but basically all R&D necessary is simply the lens/optics. All the other parts (display matrix, CPU, sensors) can easily be improved in a modular fashion.
The only thing that is really complicated is how to optically focus the image in a way that isn't too bulky and is comfortable for the eyes.
There are a limited number of ways to achive this. IIRCE, there's the option of small LASERs shining directly on the retina, and light field displays.
So what are the AR companies, especially Magic Leap, actually doing that is so secretive? All we need is the optics.
Re:It's all about the lenses/optics (Score:4, Insightful)
I really don't understand why AR companies are so hyped.
Yes you do.
AR will be very cool once it gets off the ground
See?
Re:It's all about the lenses/optics...Not entirely (Score:3)
1) Lenses/optics/display device as you stated
2) Spacial processing. This is the real issue. Being able to quickly process the environment around the viewer and create a 3D image map of that space and augmented tagging/views that are available for it.
3) Performing the above processing and synchronizing it in real time and a high enough framerate as to make it seamless (or nearly seamless) to actually "augment" the image/vision the huma
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AR would be an extremely good thing, with all sorts of uses. Unfortunately, there are lots of problems to be solved. So it's unlikely this year or next.
The year after next perhaps they'll have a "merged reality" system, sort of like what Niven & Pournelle talked about in "Barsoom Project" or "California Voodoo", though of course not as advanced. A true VR system with no contact with external reality (something like Vernor Vinge's "True Names") has a few more problems to solve, like worse haptic feed
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there's the option of small LASERs shining directly on the retina
So you're saying the real problem is just trying to figure out how to miniaturise the sharks?
How do you "PM" a user on slashdot? (Score:1)
I just want to know what seasonings go well with shorts.
https://slashdot.org/comments.... [slashdot.org]
Played w/ a Magic Leap (Score:3, Informative)
I had the opportunity a few years ago to play w/ the Magic Leap for a particular project.
The glasses were very cool and the tech was actually pretty good. It had the ability to map the area and determined distances to objects. This allowed it to "know" where occlusions would occur. With some of the games, targets would appear behind these objects, just like someone was hiding behind a wall. In addition, portals would open on the walls, floor, and ceiling. You could play Angry Birds 3D and see where the birds would land, increasing the strategy from the normal 2D game.
The image quality was good, but you had to be careful about the field of view. Depending what you were doing, you would suddenly see a split in the image as you moved out of the established "world frame".
Why no AR face shields? (Score:2)
Magic, sure. But where's the Leap? (Score:2)
Their demonstrations always look magical. Even more magical is their ability to raise money. But "Leap"? I think we're still waiting for that part.