Most of us have heard about Virtual Reality with products like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR. It would appear that this market is going to catch on big this year. Even before VR began to catch on recently was Augmented Reality, a way of viewing computer generated images on the real world, which is popular on smartphone and tablet apps. However, the Magic Leap is ready to bring about Mixed Reality, which will really mix the two technologies together once the technology is perfected.
A recent issue of Wired discusses how the Magic Leap creates a VR world that is overlaid on the real world. It uses goggles that are semitransparent, so you can see your actual surroundings, and Magic Leap is one of the most secretive and rich investments at the same time. So far, the Magic Leap company has a few billion dollars into it, with Google being one of the first to invest, with many other tech players involved as well.
Should Magic Leap ever be perfected, it would create a computer screen that would have no boundaries. Essentially, if you put something on your head that looks like what you see in the image. There is a screen that is connected to the real world somehow, so every time you see something in the real world, you have the option of getting all kinds of digital information that only the user can see.
According to The Geek Church this is a design patent given for Magic Leap, and it looks like some kind of bike helmet. One would assume that this is a more improved version of Google Glass, with the front dome section being transparent.
There is apparently a design patent that you see here, but it is not set in stone. In fact, Gizmodo says that this isn't the first time a Magic Leap patent has surfaced, so whether or not this is true remains to be seen. Considering that Microsoft is working on this technology already with Hololens, it would appear that the future is going to be an interesting place.
After all, one of the things that is hindering VR is the lack of content, and it could actually take a while before decent games and 360 video footage arrive on even the best VR headsets. Also, the experience of a VR headset is always made for one user and it is a very private experience that isn't very portable.
However, a Magic Leap would be a way to take a new experience with you, even going so far as making a typical experience a digital one. At this point, MR could come in and make VR a thing of the past before it becomes our future.
