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Magic Leap Secures $542M Led by Google
- reduce 12y ago> It’s rare that a company can stay relatively secretive while raising a huge amount of funding, but Florida’s Magic Leap has managed that. Only rare because journalists are extremely lazy by default, and need their stories pre-drafted and handed to them on a silver platter, which companies tend to do. Avoiding press is very easy, just don't do the journalists' job for them. :)
- chayesfss 12y agoso true, tech journalist basically want the company to do the writing for them.
- tsunamifury 12y agoWhat he means is, its rare to raise without having to do massive PR campaigns first to get enough 'buzz' to attract attention. Of course in reality, its mostly pre-established relationships that would raise this money, not buzz.
- jonnathanson 12y ago"journalists are extremely lazy by default, and need their stories pre-drafted and handed to them" This seems to be a consensus opinion on HN. I have no idea if it's a majority opinion, but it's fairly typical. The "journalists are lazy/stupid/inept" argument generally misunderstands what journalists do, how they work, and how they pick (or, as is more often the case, how they're assigned) their coverage. If anything, it gives some journalists too much credit, and for the wrong things. I'm not a professional journalist, though I've written frequently for some major and minor publications. My typical process looks like this: 1. Pitch a bunch of story ideas to my editor. 2. Have 99% of those ideas rejected for various reasons: too narrow; too wonky; not enough meat on the bone [1]; not timely enough [2]. 3. Settle on a topic that is somehow deemed acceptably timely, broad, approachable to general audiences, and well substantiated by some degree of data or prior coverage. The astute reader will start to see how objections [1] and [2] come into direct conflict. By definition, breaking something new means covering ground that hasn't been covered before (or at least not often, or not in depth). But having prior substantiation often means being able to point to pre-existing coverage, as proof that your topic is of some interest to the public. [3] Also, you have to sort this all out on a deadline: anything from the end of the day to the end of the week, per story. (As an exercise: try investigating, substantiating, and beautifully composing an in-depth story in a single working day). [3] The public, as typically defined, is a very broad swath of readers. Even major tech sites, like TechCrunch, now have a very broad readership -- with highly varying degrees of technical sophistication, subject-matter expertise, and topical interests. On the flip side, look at any of the blogs or publications that HN readers respect. Chances are, they write in greater depth. They are not afraid to get into the wonky, technical details of their coverage. They don't just give you charts and infographics; they give you their statistical reasoning. Niche publications can do this. Broad publications theoretically can, but often choose not to, out of the belief that the effort/payoff ratio just isn't there. It's a lot of effort that will appeal to only a sliver of their readerships. Deep coverage, or investigative coverage, or breaking new ground, requires a shitload of hard work. It is extremely tough on a standard deadline. It often requires a dedicated budget, and a broadly extended deadline, just to ensure that the writer(s) can afford to develop it. Bottom line: I don't disagree with you. Most tech journalism sucks. That said, I don't blame the writers per se. They are the proximate end of a very long chain. Maybe some of them are capable of writing the stories we'd want to read. Maybe not. But they don't get the chance in the first place. Before we impugn the entire field of journalism, let's be clear which publications, and which branches of journalism, we're impugning. It's silly to paint the whole field with one brush. I'm not saying the ratio of wheat to chaff is a good one, in the aggregate. But there is definitely wheat to be found. For every two dozen tossed-out, deadline-harried stories you find, I can point you to one or two amazing pieces of long-form writing. Sometimes the former and the latter are produced by the same writer. It all depends on the publication, its business objectives, and its beliefs about the demands of its average audience. The stuff you read in TechCrunch, for example, is meant to be consumed and immediately understood by almost everyone: you, your non-technical friend, and even your Baby Boomer parents. There's a certain type of material that fits that broad audience's tastes. Chances are, it's not the type of material that moves readers like us.
- VonGuard 12y agoJournalist here. This man speaks truth. Pitching is 99% of the job, and I've lost count of the number of major stories my editors turned down, even when I had those stories as much as 3 years before major outlets. This is exactly how it works.
- hackuser 12y ago> journalists are extremely lazy by default The same might be said for most people in any job, including developers. There are good devs and good journalists too.
- dragonwriter 12y ago> Only rare because journalists are extremely lazy by default, and need their stories pre-drafted and handed to them on a silver platter That doesn't follow. If that is true, then it would be very easy for a company to be able to stay relatively secretive while raising a huge amount of funding; with lazy journalists as you describe, a company could raise funding by networking and so long as no one involved issued press releases, they would succeed in being secretive.
- nl 12y agoAs I said when there was speculation into an investment this size by Google, etc into Magic Leap: An investment this size isn't designed to get "VC-size" (10x) returns. It is designed to block competitors getting access to the technology before Google.
- joelrunyon 12y agoThey did something similar w/ Uber.
- ig1 12y agoThe 10x factor generally only applies to early stage investments, VCs making later stage investments tend to need smaller returns because there's less risk involved.
- achr2 12y agoTheir technology trademark is 'Dynamic Digitized Lightfield Signal'. A lightfield camera has multiple lenses to record multiple focal points simultaneously. Have they found a way to reverse this concept, 'project' to a wearable an eye refocusable image? Their list of job openings leads to a lot of possibilities.
- XorNot 12y agoThere's no theoretical reason this wouldn't be possible - there's been a lot of very cool work on lightfield technology. The best I remember was a display where by adding multiple LCD layers (3 I think) and calculating a high frequency distortion signal, you could achieve wide-field of view 3D TV, glasses-free, with pre-rendered images. There's other work to do the same thing to the retina - throw a lightfield at it which simulates the proper wavefronts to focus a 3D image at a short distance. Of course this is all kind of begging the question of what this company is actually doing: for example, the big problem not answered is where they get the portable processing power to make this work, and what the actual resolution is? The Oculus Rift already tells us 1080p is not enough and even 1440p will be imperfect. Of course you could try to end run around the problem: I've been curious what you could do with 3-color lasers shone through an interferometer setup mounted on piezoelectrics, so you could add or subtract interference peaks by advancing the mirrors a few nanometers and then scanning the output over the eye (or, as one company is doing - using a DLP mirror chip). Focus that laser beam small enough, and you'd be addressing individual rod and cone receptors in the retina, granting infinite focus to any projected image. EDIT: Looking at that jobs page, a laser and fiber optic engineer being top position seems very intriguing.
- nawitus 12y agoBut the Rift has a very high FOV compared to what many AR applications require. If you only need to draw a relatively small AR object instead of drawing the whole FOV, 1080p goes a long way. Kinda like the 1080p laptop screen in front of me is cleary enough, but stretching that to the whole FOV decreases the pixel density too much.
- aqme28 12y ago
- caractacus 12y agoSo many people will skim the article and come to believe that Magic Leap will make cutesy hand-held virtual animals purely on the basis of the gif at the top.
- turnip1979 12y agoFrom the gif, I gather they are doing AR without fiduciary markers. Since the gif shows a hand that is moving while the elephant remains in place, they might be doing 3d surface construction (possibly in real-time). How off am I?
- hauschi 12y agoReally love that they actually try to sell a vision and pull through with it.
- hauschi 12y agoReally love that they actually try to sell a vision and pull through with it.
- Ragnarork 12y agoIt's a bit strange how the CEO claims it's not AR while it looks completely like it. > since it goes well beyond that and provides truly integrated, 3D digital objects that looks as though they were physical objects, alongside the real world That's exactly the goal of augmented reality IMO.
- JoachimSchipper 12y agoI'm sure this is easier to explain than "we actually do AR, everyone else is using the word wrong". (See also: "hacker".)
- maaaats 12y agoWho is using the AR word wrong?
- JoachimSchipper 12y agoThe Ingress game is perhaps the most famous example of a company using "Augmented Reality" to mean something substantially more limited than Magic Leap intends. Also, most of http://mashable.com/category/augmented-reality/ http://mashable.com/category/augmented-reality/.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- wodenokoto 12y agoI'd say AR with limited functionality is still AR. This pool tables is also rightly called AR even though it doesn't even feature a screen.
- loceng 12y agoThe language used, including the brand name, make it sound like it's a leap ahead of the competition. It has our attention especially now with this large raise. Hoping it's truly a decent improvement.
- tsenkov 12y agoDefinitely got my attention. :) Funny thing I noticed, going through the job descriptions - Physical Requirements for HR Generalist[1]: > While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit;use hands to finger, handle, or feel and talk or hear. The employee is frequently required to reach with hands and arms. The employee is occasionally required to stand;walk;climb or balance;stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl and taste or smell. > The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds, frequently lift and/or move up to 25 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds. > Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus. [1] http://www.magicleap.com/#/jobDescription/administration/l7&post_id=1 http://www.magicleap.com/#/jobDescription/administration/l7&...
- GFK_of_xmaspast 12y agoWhat's funny about it?
- LogicX 12y agoFor me, the biggest headline out of this not being mentioned is that half a billion in VC was just raised in Hollywood, FL. I'm building a startup community in Myrtle Beach, SC and Paul Reynolds is one of the founders of Startup.SC with me. Paul is involved in Magic Leap as a director, and after working remotely, just moved there last month. It's very exciting to see unfold! It drives home the fact that a startup can make such headlines not only outside Silicon Valley, but even outside other well known northeast tech metros. It's the sort of news I feed on to explain scalable startup growth potential: Magic Leap has done a spectacular job attracting talent from all over the country. There are worse places to be than the Fort Lauderdale, FL area. I watched the revival of the Boston startup scene while involved with TechStars, DogPatch labs, etc. from 2009-2012 and although we certainly don't have the same resources, I'm doing my best to apply those principles to the Myrtle Beach market. I hope to one day have a startup come through Startup.SC which can also demonstrate the ability to attract talent and investment dollars to a coastal city not known for tech, and demonstrate that a company can thrive! Edit: And not going unnoticed in Miami: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article2942814.html http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article2942814.html
- sc_startup_work 12y agoStartup.SC is really exciting -- I live in the Charleston area (but work for SV companies remotely) and hadn't heard of them before. The quality of developers and ideas coming out of this town hasn't been that great, or (as I hope) I am having a terrible time finding the right community.
- LogicX 12y agoYou should come visit our community and mingle with our members at an event: http://meetup.com/Startup-SC http://meetup.com/Startup-SC Or reach out to me on twitter: @MikeSchroll @StartupdotSC We have some top-notch devs working out of our space: Ex: Two remote workers for Quirky.com.
- not_that_noob 12y agoFor me, the main story is that there is still money thanks to people like Google and AH to go after the big bold crazy technology dream. Kudos to all Rony, Google and AH for the courage and vision.
- brotchie 12y agohttp://www.magicleap.com/#/wizards-wanted http://www.magicleap.com/#/wizards-wanted Looks like they're heavily recruiting across the board. - FPGA / ASIC engineers; - Android developers; - Unity developers; - Raft of machine vision PhDs (eye tracking, iris recognition, 3D object tracking); - Deep learning experts; - Rapid prototyping experts; I guess they have a super compelling prototype that needs a bunch of polishing before commercial release? Exciting stuff.
- dharma1 12y agoThe job descriptions offer interesting insight into what's about to come - http://www.magicleap.com/#/jobDescription/games/z2&post_id=1 http://www.magicleap.com/#/jobDescription/games/z2&post_id=1 "Magic Leap and Weta Workshop are collaborating on a truly next-generation Dr. Grordbort’s first person shooter on a world-changing new platform in an effort to defend Earth from robotic overthrow"
- Iftheshoefits 12y agoI hope they're OK with remote work, and that they're open to paying more than the typical IT wage in Florida, because I can't imagine their talent pool will be substantial otherwise, being in Hollywood, and all.
- fidotron 12y agoThis struck me too. The secrecy probably excludes remote work, so . . . they're going to have to pay massively to get the experience they apparently need down there. This is a rare case where relocating to SV may actually be a cost reduction measure.
- jusben1369 12y agoI don't know. I can see it going both ways. Honestly, how many places sound this interesting to work at? Feels like Steve Jobs famous line about you can keep on making sugar water or you can change the world with us. It's hard for SV people to leave the Kool Aid but it wouldn't be too hard to pull anyone from a cold part of the US and/or already on the East Coast.
- ilaksh 12y agoWhy didn't they give $500 million to Meta? Seems cooler to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJNnX3OaCTY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJNnX3OaCTY This is the one I found from a few years ago for Magic Leap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOW3b7YmeKk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOW3b7YmeKk Maybe they have googles now or improved it somehow.
- funkyy 12y agoSeems cooler? Magic Leap didnt even properly presented their technology, so how can you know? If they gave $500 million to this company it must mean it is either better or have better perspective. As simple as that.
- higherpurpose 12y agoAR is okay, but it will probably be gimmicky for a long time before it's useful. VR is the closest thing we have to the Holodeck, and it's almost here. I thought Google loved Star Trek. It shouldn't be ignoring VR.
- Ragnarork 12y agoIt's already useful. See http://augmentedev.com/ http://augmentedev.com/ (Well, it's not a really funny application of AR, but I wouldn't call it gimmicky)
- throwaway5752 12y agoVery interesting, I looked up the CEO to see if he had a Disney/Imagineering background, and was surprised to see I was familiar with his previous work, which was founding former public company MAKO Surgical (which ended up being acquired by Stryker). MAKO's product used a robot/surgeon hybrid + software for visualizing/planning surgeries for implanting joint replacements. Interesting career twist (edit: but one that makes a lot of sense) edit: @glxc, completely agree, I just didn't know a lot about his background prior to seeing this news. Interesting guy.
- glxc 12y agoHe's not a roboticist or a film producer, he's a technologist
- dr_ 12y agoThey have an app on the App Store called Hour Blue, which they had run as a demo at Comic Con a few years back, in conjunction with string labs. It doesn't seem to work for me in the iPhone 6 though. You watch a video of the demo if you search on YouTube however. The demo was a basic augmented reality example. I'm assuming, with an investment of this size, they have achieved something far more substantial.
- philippnagel 12y agoWas anyone else's antivirus software triggered by their website? Avast thinks http//www.magicleap.com/js/app.js is malware.
- dmix 12y agoIt's just an angular app. False positive.
- spyder 12y agoSee my previous comment about what their technology might be: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8452013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8452013
- theklub 12y agoInteresting that disney didn't invest, seems like they are right in their backyard and the potential to use this in a theme park....
- serg_chernata 12y agoThere's a neat discussion on Oculus Rift forums about this company and speculation that it may be based on light field displays. https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=10449 https://developer.oculusvr.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1...
- m52go 12y agoI'll go ahead and be that guy... It's absurd that a company is raising a half-billion dollars in venture capital. So much opportunistic capital tied up in one place makes zero sense, regardless of how good this venture may be.
- knowaveragejoe 12y agoAs others have pointed out, it's unlikely that the company needs the money and this is more about denying competitors the technology before Google gets their hands on it.
- m52go 12y agoRight, I get that. That's why the company wants the capital. It's impossible for any young company to need this sum of money at once. But it doesn't justify the market giving it to them. The ultimate effect is the entire market got denied a substantial amount of capital (not just ML's competitors) in order for a single entity to gamble it. That's irresponsible of everyone, founders and investors included. Either acquire, go public, or JV to secure an opportunity. Why sap such a huge swathe of capital from the opportunistic ecosystem?
- knowaveragejoe 12y agoThese are very intelligent folks we're talking about, I'm sure there is a rational explanation.
- m52go 12y agoI hope there is. Intelligent folks also run Wall Street and Washington but both of those systems are undeniably terrible. Perhaps this is different.
- knowaveragejoe 12y agoI don't think that's a good example. For all the angst around them online, they both have their redeeming qualities if you actually interact with either.
- codydabest 12y agoDid anybody notice the typo on the company page? "It is biomimetic, meaning it respects how we are function naturally as humans (we are humans after all, not machines)."
- fidotron 12y agoI was more struck that it misrepresented what biomimetics is. There are interesting biomimetic things in display tech derived from butterly wings, which the wikipedia page conveniently mentions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimetics#Display_technology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimetics#Display_technology
- netcan 12y ago"artificial, but extremely realistic images .. projected directly onto a user’s retina" launching without predecessors as a commercial product "fairly soon" would be quite a surprise.
- jclarkcom 12y agoLooking through their most recently filed patents, it looks like their main innovation is a HMD device that uses a combination of a high speed digital zone plate, a masking device, and a traditional imaging device. For each eye, there is an imaging device (720p/1080p resolution for example) that displays an image. In front of the imaging devices there are high speed mask device (LCD?) that blocks off portions of the image that are not at the current focal depth. The focal depth cycles quickly between 12 different values and easily driven by the z-buffer values from the renders. The light not blocked by the mask is partially collimated and guided towards the eye via optics and then a high resolution high speed digital zone plate is used to refocus the light at different depth levels using diffraction. The mask and zone plate update together at 12X (360Hz-720Hz) the rate of the image device (30-60Hz). The result is that pixels that should be at different depths are actually focused near that depth and the eye blends the 12 partial frames together to form one image that has a range of depth in it. I expect they are using off the shelf parts for the imaging device (and maybe mask LCD) but manufacturing their own digital zone plates since they need super high resolution and high speed for those (at least 360hz) but only on-off values not color or grayscale. This is probably where a bit of their money is going. If it works, you could get high resolution images per eye, and also see 12 buckets of depth so your eye would refocus to see things close up versus far away. This could potentially create a pretty good impression of something existing close to you, compared to existing AR where all objects are focused at a single fixed depth and there is a conflict between accommodation and stereopis cues. Of course this is one of the patents filed, it could be just an idea they decided to file on, not what they are actually building.
- leoc 12y agoIt does seem almost certain they're aiming for realistic accommodation, whatever display technology they've chosen to go for. http://www.roadtovr.com/what-we-know-about-magic-leap-rumored-500m-investment-funding/ http://www.roadtovr.com/what-we-know-about-magic-leap-rumore... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/science/taking-real-life-sickness-out-of-virtual-reality.html http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/15/science/taking-real-life-s...
- mortenjorck 12y ago
- rip747 12y agoread the article, visited their website, watched their video. still haven't a clue of what they are doing. maybe i'm a moron. can someone shed some light on what _exactly_ they are getting $542M for?
- nrser 12y agoi only half read the article but i'm still gonna call color
- Speckled 12y agoWhy didn't Google just buy Meta?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]