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Neal Stephenson Joins Magic Leap

251 pointsby carloscmover 10 years ago

30 comments

carloscmover 10 years ago
This is notable not just because of Neal Stephenson, but because his blog post contains what I think is the most detailed public description of the tech so far:<p>--- Here’s where you’re probably expecting the sales pitch about how mind-blowingly awesome the demo was. But it’s a little more interesting than that. Yes, I saw something on that optical table I had never seen before--something that only Magic Leap, as far as I know, is capable of doing. And it was pretty cool. But what fascinated me wasn’t what Magic Leap had done but rather what it was about to start doing.<p>Magic Leap is mustering an arsenal of techniques--some tried and true, others unbelievably advanced--to produce a synthesized light field that falls upon the retina in the same way as light reflected from real objects in your environment. Depth perception, in this system, isn’t just a trick played on the brain by showing it two slightly different images.<p>Most of the work to be done is in applied physics, with a sizable dollop of biology--for there’s no way to make this happen without an intimate understanding of how the eye sees, and the brain assembles a three-dimensional model of reality. I’m fascinated by the science, but not qualified to work on it. Where I hope I can be of use is in thinking about what to do with this tech once it is available to the general public. &quot;Chief Futurist&quot; runs the risk of being a disembodied brain on a stick. I took the job on the understanding that I would have the opportunity to get a few things done. ---
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replicatorblogover 10 years ago
This Gizmodo article does a great job of demystifying MagicLeap&#x27;s tech by digging into the founder&#x27;s background, patent filings, and trademark applications:<p><a href="http://gizmodo.com/how-magic-leap-is-secretly-creating-a-new-alternate-rea-1660441103?utm_content=bufferb8afe&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter.com&amp;utm_campaign=buffer" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;gizmodo.com&#x2F;how-magic-leap-is-secretly-creating-a-new...</a>
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themoonbusover 10 years ago
That&#x27;s cool and all, but this has got to be one of the worst company websites I&#x27;ve seen recently. I get that they&#x27;re stealthy, but this doesn&#x27;t even build any interest.<p>It was only until I clicked &quot;Wizards Wanted&quot; (yes, I get it. Magic.) that I sort of got an answer.<p>Edit: Actually, the Developers section has some more information. But my point still stands.
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thearn4over 10 years ago
The hype for me is tempered pretty heavily by what happened to Clang. I&#x27;m still very curious what Magic Leap is all about though.
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ThinkBeatover 10 years ago
Will he bring as much success to this company and he did with Clang? <a href="http://www.geek.com/games/neal-stephensons-526000-kickstarter-sword-fighting-game-officially-canceled-1604892/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.geek.com&#x2F;games&#x2F;neal-stephensons-526000-kickstarte...</a>
ChuckMcMover 10 years ago
Interesting hire. As a startup it seems an unlikely one, Neal is a wonderful author, and has a sharp wit, but as he explains &quot;his brain is not useful&quot; to the work at hand. I could see <i>consulting</i> with him, but hiring him struck me as odd. In terms of what Magic Leap purportedly does my guess would be that Daniel Suarez (Daemon, Freedom) might be a better choice in terms of a vision that applies somewhat directly.
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fslothover 10 years ago
Anyone else enjoy the fact that Stephenson&#x27;s &#x27;Reamde&#x27; also featured a hightech VR company that employed famous fiction authors in their staff :)
valarauca1over 10 years ago
So they are a holographic augmented reality company?<p>From their site:<p>&gt;Imagine being able to generate images indistinguishable from real objects and then being able to place those images seamlessly into the real world.<p>Sounds like you generate a hologram anywhere. And project it into the real world. Think Star Trek holodeck, but everywhere, or anywhere from what they are selling. And the holograms they&#x27;re projecting would be almost indistinguishable from other objects (I highly doubt that honestly, subsurface reflection takes A LOT of processor horse power with 1 view alone n).<p>It will be interesting to see what they cook up.
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throwaway90446over 10 years ago
Unclear from their site what MagicLeap even does.
cryoshonover 10 years ago
Still can&#x27;t figure out what the heck this company does.<p>Guess it plans to sell hype.
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calebmover 10 years ago
When I heard of Magic Leap, &quot;Snow Crash&quot; is one of the first things that came to my mind. I really want to see a Magic Leap demo!
gavanwooleryover 10 years ago
&quot;...to produce a synthesized light field that falls upon the retina in the same way as light reflected from real objects in your environment&quot;<p>Goes back to Carmack&#x27;s idea presented in one of his Quakecon sessions (although obviously the idea has been in sci fi for a long time).<p>This is interesting, I have an idea of how it might work:<p>Producing a synthesized light field could be done with a huge array of tiny mirrors or refractive material (I know stuff like this has been done in the past). By simulating directional rays coming in, I&#x27;m guessing your eyes could be tricked into thinking there is depth since the movement of each eye would change the amount of light absorbed (i.e. &quot;focusing&quot; on different objects in the light field). I could be wrong about this, have not thought it through very well.<p>All that said, they&#x27;ve raised over $500 million from Google Ventures and others, so I&#x27;m guessing there is something here, as lacking as the website is.
Impossibleover 10 years ago
This quote &quot;I sometimes feel that the creative minds who make games have done about as much as is possible in two dimensions. It’s hard to imagine how the current crop of games, for example, could be more finely tuned to deliver that particular kind of entertainment.&quot; isn&#x27;t particular inspiring coming from a Chief Futurist. I can imagine a ton of 2D (or text based, for that matter) games that haven&#x27;t been attempted let alone perfected. I also feel like I play new novel 2D games all the time.<p>I say this as someone that is excited about VR, AR and would love to see whatever Magic Leap is cooking up, and is a huge Neal Stephenson fan.
kingzainover 10 years ago
There&#x27;s more information here if anyone is interested:<p><a href="http://io9.com/how-neal-stephenson-is-helping-to-make-snow-crashs-meta-1671621178" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;io9.com&#x2F;how-neal-stephenson-is-helping-to-make-snow-c...</a>
davidwover 10 years ago
Hrm. I hope he doesn&#x27;t get distracted from writing books. I love his books, but don&#x27;t care much about video games. I wonder if he&#x27;s tired of writing, or just wants to do something different...
nabla9over 10 years ago
<a href="http://www.faqs.org/patents/assignee/magic-leap-inc/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.faqs.org&#x2F;patents&#x2F;assignee&#x2F;magic-leap-inc&#x2F;</a>
CmonDevover 10 years ago
<i>&quot;I sometimes feel that the creative minds who make games have done about as much as is possible in two dimensions. It’s hard to imagine how the current crop of games, for example, could be more finely tuned to deliver that particular kind of entertainment.&quot;</i><p>Well PCs powerful enough for proper amount of voxels would let us do interesting things. Dwarf Fortress with a voxel-based high-res graphics could be interesting.
javajoshover 10 years ago
It&#x27;s too bad the economic incentives make this company take a stealth route. The problem is so large, and potentially so game-changing (both literally and figuratively) that I fail to see how one company could possibly capture all the value created, and it makes me sad that it would even try.
lucasgwover 10 years ago
Step away from goggles, glasses, etc. Start thinking about contact lenses and optical implants - the kind of stuff that requires FDA approval - medical devices - then the amount of funding and interest they have received becomes instantly much more credible, and makes much more sense.
billsossoonover 10 years ago
For anybody curious about Magic Leap, I highly recommend this TED talk by the company&#x27;s founder Rony Abovitz:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8J5BWL8oJY" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=w8J5BWL8oJY</a><p>It starts off kinda weird, you gotta give it a few minutes.
king_magicover 10 years ago
I literally have no clue what Magic Leap does after reading through a few pages on their site. It&#x27;s pretty absurd IMO to have a site like this that says so much but says so little. Honestly, why bother at this point?
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desdivover 10 years ago
Did this &quot;revolutionary startup hires top SF writer&quot; thing ever happen before? If so, how it turn out last time(s)?<p>I hope it doesn&#x27;t end up like the whole &quot;revolutionary CPU maker hires Linus&quot; thing.
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verytrivialover 10 years ago
There is literally and purposefully nothing to see here. Move along.
bambaxover 10 years ago
&gt; <i>We know what you&#x27;re thinking: &quot;Who the heck are we?&quot;</i><p>Well, no, I&#x27;m thinking, who the hell are <i>they</i>. And I can&#x27;t seem to figure it out from your website.
linguistbreakerover 10 years ago
Stephenson is a fairly well respected futurist.<p>The Magic Leap technology involves light field projection - kind of like the opposite of light field photography if you remember the Lytro camera.
llamatabootover 10 years ago
I wish we knew what their estimated timeframe on having some MVP of this tech available. 2 years? 5 years?
Intooover 10 years ago
MagicLeap is so secretive that it looks like their eye projecting tech. is far from being ready
miles932over 10 years ago
OMG. I can think of no stronger endorsement of a technology. <i>take my money NOW</i>
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kylestlbover 10 years ago
Is the blog down? I only see a picture of a submarine hovering above a street!
pfischover 10 years ago
This sounds so fake it is ridiculous. They hired a sci-fi author...come on.
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