Mysterious startup Magic Leap finally reveals the hardware behind its supposedly revolutionary augmented reality technology-- the One, a headset the company claims adds "another dimension to computing."
Magic Leap has been around for a few years, even if its existence so far was something of a conundrum. Founded in 2011, it received $1.9 billion in funding from names as big as Google, but it never actually showed its technology outside of a 2016 Wired report, instead simply hyping its supposedly incredible take on VR. Until now, that is.
As first shown to Rolling Stone, the One consists of three components. The first is the Lightwear, a pair of science fiction-style goggles pushing visuals into eyeballs through an artificial light field. The second component is the Lightpack, a puck-shaped unit holding the actual processing guts of the device. Finally there's the Control, a controller featuring 6 buttons, 6DoF, motion sensing and haptic feedback.
So far the One sounds both impressive and not so much-- Rolling Stone says the AR pushed by the device boasts both clarity and solidity. with virtual objects becoming more detailed the closer the viewer gets. However the field of view is limited, being “about the size of a VHS tape held in front of you with your arms half extended.” Still, it is described as larger than what the HoloLens offers.
Magic Leap does say it is still working on the headset, and a next gen version will offer a "significantly bigger" field of view. That said, the developers and the curious will be able to get the One hardware seen by Rolling Stone next year in the shape of a Creator Edition.
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