Technology enthusiasts continue to itch for a proper look at Magic Leap’s technology. The Florida-based company carries an incredible amount of financial backing, roughly $1.4 billion, to build out its technology platform. For years now we’ve been forced to piece together our best guesses at the company’s approach to the VR/AR industry, with a headset that is purported to deliver light fields to its wearer’s eyes. This method of inserting digital objects into your view might be visually indistinguishable from unaltered reality, or at least that’s the promise.
Even if the technology is able to deliver on that lofty promise there are serious concerns about the size, weight, processing and power requirements of the hardware that could make it uncomfortable, ugly or impossible to wear in a real world setting. The company seems to be continually showing hints of what it hopes to deliver one day, including a series of patents depicting a variety of designs that may or may not resemble the final product.
And that seems to again be the case with the latest patent, filed in 2015 and published this week. Magic Leap told Business Insider “what you are looking at is not our product.”
Nevertheless, the level of interest in updates on Magic Leap, as well as the title of the patent (“Virtual reality glasses”) demands that we shine a light on the latest from the company. The company has been a defender of the term “Mixed Reality” to refer to its technology and its CEO Rony Abovitz has been critical of the current way VR headsets display imagery. So to see the company patent VR glasses is certainly notable, even if powered by different technology.
The patent is number D795,952.
