Spatial Computing with Magic Leap

ETC kicks off the first meeting of the new year with a presentation, discussion and experience of spatial computing with Magic Leap's One Creator Edition headset.  The company has recently been out of stealth with a product for early developers.  Alex Haber, Head of Education, Ajoy Fernandes, Interaction Engineer, and Jonathan Small, Technical Artist provided a history of the technical development leading up to the Creator Edition and the multiple use cases for higher education. 

Magic Leap One allows in natural light waves together with softly layered synthetic lightfields.  The real world and virtual light rays initiate neural signals that pass from the retina to the visual part of the brain, which creates the visuals within the headset.  The sensor suite on the device makes digital objects contextually aware.  For example, when digital penguins walk off the edge of the coffee table, they fall off that edge, just like real penguins would.  Spatial audio blends virtual objects with the real world by relaying distance and intensity with accuracy and control, allowing you to experience an object behind you without you having to turn around. 

The headset is powered by the lightpack that has an integrated GPU and CPU which is able to generate high-fidelity, gaming-quality graphics for the headset.  The content is controlled by their controller dubbed "Mission Control".  Magic Leap has also built their own OS that runs the applications and is built around social (supports sharing experiences in mixed reality), screens (create multiple screens of any size for movies and TV) and gallery (showcase, share and organize photos, videos or 3D models that are created or captured with the headset) as their core platform.