Virtual reality may be the hot ticket right now, but mystery startup Magic Leap has plans for the next "big thing": mixed reality.
The Florida-based company broke a streak of silence today, giving us a clearer picture of what it plans to bring to the new reality table with a video succinctly titled "A New Morning" as well as an extensive profile in Wired.
Claiming to be unedited, save for imposing a spot of text on the bottom, the video is a continuous shot showing how Magic Leap's mixed reality goggles can augment everyday life.
The tech props up holograms of texts, emails, presentations, shopping lists, and even slimy pink sea invertebrates in the environment, like the HUD of a sci-fi video game.
Mix it up
Magic Leap has otherwise been coy about its work, despite raking in ridiculous amounts of funding from investors and teasing a few concepts on its YouTube page. This is our first look at what the device hopes to accomplish as it's running in real-time, as well as what mixed reality offers over its virtual counterpart.
Mixed reality blends the real world with a digital one to make a new kind of experience not possible on standard VR headsets. This is the land where HoloLens lives as well.
We still don't know how Magic Leap's device will manifest in terms of a consumer prototype, or if a computer or smartphone will need to be synced with it, but the team let slip that the way it projects images to the eye is unique from other headsets.
Particularly, the Magic Leap display allows viewers to focus their eyes on objects relative to how far away they are, including up close, which is something HoloLens struggles with.
Exactly how this is being done remains the company's secret sauce, but the tech allows for more realistic, immersive, or vivid holograms to be produced.
Even though it's just a taste, what Magic Leap has shown off in a single, uncut clip has our attention. We could be seeing the end of the monitor display, but possibly also the dawn of the Flying Jellyfish Overlords.
