The word is google is maybe about to invest $500 million in them. From the quotes being bandied around by people that have actually experienced demo's it's beyond amazing - Super realistic VR & Augmented reality. - True depth of the 3D (Multiple focus points). In a headset? Glasses? Portable? Affordable? Low latency? High res? Hardware requirements? All questions, and no answers yet. http://www.magicleap.com/ Maybe it'll genuinely be a complete game changer. If it will maybe make companies who are banking on people strapping their phablets to their face look a bit low grade. Personally, I think it's probably got a very long way to go before it's ready to be thought of as even vapourware potential.
Isn't this just to one up Oculus Rift and get a slice of the VR/AR pie? Are we looking at another format war on the distant horizon?
Absolutely, Oculus is doing extremely well; so well that they ran out of components because so many dev kits have been ordered. No doubt google wants some of that action.
Yeah, the thing about the dev kits... the demand was artificially high because of people selling them on as finished products, as I understand it. TBH, I don't really care about Oculus Rift or Magic Leap. The prospect of two companies with deep pockets getting into a format war... well, I'll grab a chair and bulk-buy some popcorn.
If they can track each eye-movement and compute the exact point that your eyes are looking at .... why not. I've seen and tested eye pupil tracking lately and it is very impressive and accurate. The only drawback with regular screen was that you had to keep your head still, only eye movements were allowed for the tracking to work. With something like the occulus, you'd be able to move both head and eyes.
