Magic Leap has taken to Twitch to show off the head-fit and a few other details about what seems to be the final retail version of its first device, the Magic Leap One. Shanna De Iullis, a member of Magic Leap’s marketing team, showed off how the headset is worn, including what you do with the puck that handles the actual computing. She gave us close looks at the headset itself, the computing puck and the Daydream-like controller, which is tracked by the headset. The contraption is powered on to show that it works, but viewers don’t get to see what’s on the other side of the lens during the demonstration.
De Iullis describes the system’s boot up process, where users will see a logo and splash screen briefly before the unit boots up fully. Not much was said about how the UI will work and how users will navigate and download apps, but there will be a dedicated app store, called Magic Leap World. The hardware tour revealed that the headset’s band expands when it’s picked up from the back, and users will put it onto the back of their heads so that it slopes down and the glasses sit flush on their nose, then push the band’s expanding pieces together until they’re snug. The controller has a touchpad and full motion tracking; it has its own sensors, and the sensors on the headset track it. Finally, the puck is roughly the size of an average smartphone, and is attached to the headset via a cord. It features a USB Type-C port that will both charge it and allow developers to hook it up to a computer.
This is the most thorough look yet at Magic Leap’s physical hardware, and should give prospective users and hopeful developers alike a good taste of what to expect when the unit launches, which will reportedly happen later this year. The unit shown off today, which seems to be the final retail version or at least something very close, is a far cry from the massive back-mounted machine shown off as the very first prototype.