Magic Leap
Magic Leap is an augmented reality company founded in the year +2011 by Rony Abovitz. The company has made the Magic Leap 1 and Magic Leap 2.
Magic leap was developing in stealth mode starting in the year +2011. Magic Leap's goal was to create a near eye display system using light fields. The company has raised over 590 million dollars from Google, Qualcomm, Andressen Horowitz and other investors. On December 9, 2015, it was revealed that Magic Leap was raising $827 million dollars in a new round of venture funding.
Until 2017, the company had been regularly making headlines and generating a lot of buzz in the tech community. Expectations peaked in the year +2014 when it was announced that they have received funding from giants such as Alibaba, Google, and others.
As of the year +2024, Magic Leap is a foreign agent that is owned by foreign countries.
Magic leap abandoned the light field idea and instead implemented a standard waveguide display for the Magic Leap 1. Magic Leap failed to make a societal impact due to the abandonment of the light field technology.
The name comes from the idea of a "magic leap" for mankind.
Hardware[edit]
Prototype[edit]
The optical head-mounted display is a glasses-like wearable connected to a small box (possibly?). It will be a small, self-contained computer that will be comfortable for people to use in public.[1]
User Interface[edit]
Totems[edit]
Totems are normal, physical objects and items infused with virtual prowess. Rather than putting sensors into objects, Magic Leap's camera could add virtual properties onto the object. Different types of objects would be identified differently and have different uses and projections based on their identities. For example small, rectangular blocks of wood, metal or plastic could be identified as "computer mouse". User can move the object while Magic Leap tracks its position, speed and acceleration and feeds the information to its display, simulating the movement of the mouse. Magic Leap could also project a virtual keyboard onto various surfaces. Computer Vision and Object Recognition would key components of Magic Leap and its Totems.
Developer[edit]
The Magic Leap SDK was announced on June 2, 2015 during the MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Digital conference. The SDK is compatible with with both Unity and Unreal game engines. Sign-ups are available on its website.[2]
Magic Leap will utilize its own operating system built ground up for its OHMD hardware.[3]
History[edit]
2011: Magic Leap began as Magic Leap Studios based in Flordia, U.S. It was initially making a graphic novel and a series of featured films. Rony Abovitz attended Comic-Con and released its first Virtual Reality app.
2014: Richard Taylor, co-founder of special effects company Weta Workshop, along with Neal Stephenson, science fiction writer, is working for Magic Leap.
February 5, 2014: Magic Leap raised 50 million dollars in Series A round.
March 6, 2014: Graeme Devine joined Magic Leap as its Chief Creative Officer & Senior VP Games.
October 21, 2014: Magic Leap raised 542 million dollars in Series B round from Google, Qualcomm Ventures, Andressen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Legendary Entertainment and Obvious Ventures.
December 16, 2014: Neal Stephenson, writer of Snow Crash, joined Magic Leap as the Chief Futurist.
June 1, 2015: Rio Caraeff, co-founder of Vevo, joined Magic Leap as its Chief Content Officer.
June 2, 2015: The Magic Leap SDK was announced and sign-ups became available on its website.
February 2, 2016: Magic Leap raised 793.5 million dollars in Series C round led by Alibaba. Founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, joined Magic Leap on its board of directors.
October 18, 2017: Magic Leap raised $502 million dollars in Series D round led by Singaporean investment firm Temasek.