Magic Leap is a startup company based in the United States with the main goal eventually releasing a commercial head-mounted retinal display that will create 3D imagery generated by a computer over real world objects by projecting them into the user’s eye. Founded by Rony Abovitz in 2010, the company remained silent about its projects until 2014, when the company raised over $540 in funding from Google itself among several other companies such as Qualcomm, Andreessen Horowitz, and Kleiner Perkins. Since then, Magic Leap has experienced an astounding growth, all thanks to the different companies that backed its main project.
Currently, Magic Leap is still incredibly secretive about the company’s technology as no one has been able to test, see, or write about what goes on inside the Magic Leap’s headquarters, except for a single journalist from TechnologyReview.com, who apparently tried the impressive technology a few months ago. The report written raised an important question, how exactly would a device like this look? The incredibly innovative and highly anticipated device that will supposedly take augmented reality to a complete new level, called “cinematic reality” by Magic Leap itself because of the imagery’s realism, but it has remained a complete mystery due to the lack of information released. Fortunately, a new patent was discovered recently, which showcased a possible design for the mysterious headset, bringing several details about Magic Leap’s head-mounted retina display device. Magic Leap filed a patent application for “Virtual and Augmented Reality System and Methods”, which included a few images that revealed the gadget’s overall design and possible functionality.
The device itself is not exactly stylish according to the patent drawings, but as with most patents, the images don’t represent the final product and only serve to protect the way the product functions. Although it might not be what most expected, this is the first look at what might end up revolutionizing the AR industry. The revealed image shows a sunglass like device, similar to Microsoft’s HoloLens, but wired to a “remote processing module” that will power the whole headset. The patent also revealed that Magic Leap’s headset will also provide audio feedback along with the displayed 3D imagery, in order to create a more immersive experience, although it is unclear if these will be necessary to make use of the “cinematic reality” headset. Keep in mind that the final product will most likely not look in any way similar to the images included with the patent, as they only “illustrate one or more embodiments of various internal processing components of the wearable AR device”.
