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So you've demoed Magic Leap? What differences did you see that would make it a waste of Google's money?

by spacecity1971 11y ago

VonGuard 11y ago
Magic Leap is based on super complex tech that draws images right onto your retina. It's the kind of tech that will take them another couple of years to make small enough to package, and possibly another few years to build the tools to develop for it and to ensure it's not actually blinding people by shining bright lights right into their eye. A friend of mine used it and said Magic Leap, initially, is like trying to breath liquid oxygen in the Abyss: you fight it and can't really take that bright ass light shining in your eye. You have to really get used to it and relax yourself for it to work. Hololens is just a screen in front of your face. It could never blind you or hurt your eyes. It just works, it works today, it fits in a product form factor today, and after using it for a while, I really don't see much need for an also-ran here. Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do, and it can do it a LOT cheaper and safer. Plus, MS dev tools. You just know that Google's Magic Leap dev kit will, basically, be targeted at super intelligent people and require a lot of do it yourself stuff.
- tizzdogg 11y ago
  I havnt used either, but my impression was that Magic Leap's technology is basically projecting a light field into your eyes, so you eyes can actually focus naturally.. as opposed to looking at an image with fixed focal distance like the hololens. But I'm not super informed about either product so I could be wrong.
- imh 11y ago
  Magic Leap apparently can draw things at more than one distance from you, unlike the hololens's fixed 2m away. That's a massive difference.
  - CyberAngel 11y ago
    Compared to the HoloLens ... 2 - Yes! There will be HoloLens 2 in the Magic Leap future 2020...???
  - VonGuard 11y ago
    Jut wrong about Hololens. Stuff may be drawn close to your face, but the image is scaled very, very well. It may be drawn up close, but it still looks like it's very far away, way more than 2 meters.
    - josephpmay 11y ago
      You're just wrong about this. Magic Leap has accommodation support, Hololens doesn't. Any sense of depth you get from Hololens is simply stereoscopy.
- spacecity1971 11y ago
  Thanks for the reply, even though I was hoping it wasn't basically hearsay and speculation (which it unfortunately is). Abovitz has repeatedly said that they absolutely want their tech to be safe enough for kids to use, so perhaps the safety concerns are not based on facts? Magic Leap apparently has active occlusion, and can run the spectrum from VR to AR/MR; pretty sure that makes it the potential leader, not an also-ran. I guess we'll see soon enough. Exciting times.
  - VonGuard 11y ago
    What I'm saying is, Hololens does ALL of those VR/AR things already, and there's not even a slight chance of eye damage involved. I really have trouble envisioning anything that would be lightyears beyond Hololens, but rather, something that would be a small step up from Hololens, and yet, still 2 years out.
- MaggieL 11y ago
  Um...they didn't "breathe liquid oxygen" in The Abyss...that stuff is instant-frozen cold. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing I really can't believe that the light level in MagicLeap isn't adjustable to a comfortable level.
- DanBC 11y ago
  Focusing lasers onto your retina is not new. There's been Virtual Retina Display for a while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display http://www.hitl.washington.edu/research/vrd/ http://www.hitl.washington.edu/research/vrd/ http://ascent.atos.net/ascent-look/ http://ascent.atos.net/ascent-look/ And here's a (terrifying) DIY version: http://eclecti.cc/hardware/blinded-by-the-light-diy-retinal-projection http://eclecti.cc/hardware/blinded-by-the-light-diy-retinal-...
  - VonGuard 11y ago
    I remember it being mentioned in Wired in the 90's. But then, Westinghouse build a Mech (yes, a battle suit) in the 50's, and they never caught on. Of course, they never put anyone inside the mech because it could have snapped an arm off by bending the wrong way... Some tech comes out early but doesn't catch on for a reason.
- mcferrin 11y ago
  Sounds like Magic Leap is the future and HoloLens is now. I cannot imagine that we would be satisfied using all these clunky devices for long.

So you've demoed Magic Leap? What differences did you see that would make it a waste of Google's money?

Magic Leap is based on super complex tech that draws images right onto your retina. It's the kind of tech that will take them another couple of years to make small enough to package, and possibly another few years to build the tools to develop for it and to ensure it's not actually blinding people by shining bright lights right into their eye. A friend of mine used it and said Magic Leap, initially, is like trying to breath liquid oxygen in the Abyss: you fight it and can't really take that bright ass light shining in your eye. You have to really get used to it and relax yourself for it to work. Hololens is just a screen in front of your face. It could never blind you or hurt your eyes. It just works, it works today, it fits in a product form factor today, and after using it for a while, I really don't see much need for an also-ran here. Hololens can do everything Magic Leap is supposed to do, and it can do it a LOT cheaper and safer. Plus, MS dev tools. You just know that Google's Magic Leap dev kit will, basically, be targeted at super intelligent people and require a lot of do it yourself stuff.

tizzdogg 11y ago
I havnt used either, but my impression was that Magic Leap's technology is basically projecting a light field into your eyes, so you eyes can actually focus naturally.. as opposed to looking at an image with fixed focal distance like the hololens. But I'm not super informed about either product so I could be wrong.
imh 11y ago
Magic Leap apparently can draw things at more than one distance from you, unlike the hololens's fixed 2m away. That's a massive difference.
- CyberAngel 11y ago
  Compared to the HoloLens ... 2 - Yes! There will be HoloLens 2 in the Magic Leap future 2020...???
- VonGuard 11y ago
  Jut wrong about Hololens. Stuff may be drawn close to your face, but the image is scaled very, very well. It may be drawn up close, but it still looks like it's very far away, way more than 2 meters.
  - josephpmay 11y ago
    You're just wrong about this. Magic Leap has accommodation support, Hololens doesn't. Any sense of depth you get from Hololens is simply stereoscopy.
spacecity1971 11y ago
Thanks for the reply, even though I was hoping it wasn't basically hearsay and speculation (which it unfortunately is). Abovitz has repeatedly said that they absolutely want their tech to be safe enough for kids to use, so perhaps the safety concerns are not based on facts? Magic Leap apparently has active occlusion, and can run the spectrum from VR to AR/MR; pretty sure that makes it the potential leader, not an also-ran. I guess we'll see soon enough. Exciting times.
- VonGuard 11y ago
  What I'm saying is, Hololens does ALL of those VR/AR things already, and there's not even a slight chance of eye damage involved. I really have trouble envisioning anything that would be lightyears beyond Hololens, but rather, something that would be a small step up from Hololens, and yet, still 2 years out.
MaggieL 11y ago
Um...they didn't "breathe liquid oxygen" in The Abyss...that stuff is instant-frozen cold. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing I really can't believe that the light level in MagicLeap isn't adjustable to a comfortable level.
DanBC 11y ago
Focusing lasers onto your retina is not new. There's been Virtual Retina Display for a while. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_retinal_display http://www.hitl.washington.edu/research/vrd/ http://www.hitl.washington.edu/research/vrd/ http://ascent.atos.net/ascent-look/ http://ascent.atos.net/ascent-look/ And here's a (terrifying) DIY version: http://eclecti.cc/hardware/blinded-by-the-light-diy-retinal-projection http://eclecti.cc/hardware/blinded-by-the-light-diy-retinal-...
- VonGuard 11y ago
  I remember it being mentioned in Wired in the 90's. But then, Westinghouse build a Mech (yes, a battle suit) in the 50's, and they never caught on. Of course, they never put anyone inside the mech because it could have snapped an arm off by bending the wrong way... Some tech comes out early but doesn't catch on for a reason.
mcferrin 11y ago
Sounds like Magic Leap is the future and HoloLens is now. I cannot imagine that we would be satisfied using all these clunky devices for long.