Watch Our Impromptu Reactions to the Magic Leap One
Outer Realm's CEO gives his initial reactions to the Magic Leap One Creator Edition upon delivery. We're in the first 20-30 recipients of the device in the LA area, and are super excited to begin developing experiences for real estate and enterprise solutions. Watch here:
David's notes
What works
1. The digital objects interact with the real world convincingly. The digital objects placed onto the real world are convincing in the way they interact - detecting surfaces, calculating physics, etc. Objects are around 80-90% opaque, so they look very present, and yet allow hints of the background to show through.
2. The digital objects have amazing persistence. Digital objects left at a place in the real world continue to stay there until further acted upon. You can place, say, a digital hat on a person’s head in a photo hung on your wall, walk around your house and come back to that photo, and that digital hat will still be exactly where you left it.
3. Field of view is surprisingly decent:. It’s definitely an improvement over the Microsoft's HoloLens and gives a pretty comprehensive view. Pleasantly surprised that it's not clipping as many situations as I thought it would. While it’s definitely not a fully immersive experience yet, it is much more usable than other MR solutions.
Room for improvement
1. Aesthetic of the digital objects do not blend well with the real world. They look obviously cartoonish, have an emissive (slightly glowing) property all over, and don’t cast any shadows. So they definitely don’t blend in with the real world. You can’t place a virtual pillow onto a couch and have it look even remotely realistic in terms of it being mistaken for a real pillow.
2. Physicality of it - sizes and adjustments needed. There are two sizes of the headset. Plus it takes time to properly adjust the headset to each viewer’s head with the 5 nosepiece options and 2 forehead rests to align and adjust the distance of the headset with the viewer’s eyes. I needed the Magic Leap delivery team to help me do this. This can be a bit of a challenge when demoing to visitors at expos and tradeshows, and could potentially impact mass consumer adoption. It would be nice to have a design that works as a universal size and easy to adjust fit. The headset today still works even if it’s the wrong size, it just limits your field of view. So in the end, it may not be a big challenge.
3. Usability in bright surroundings. It does have a challenge with windows and bright lights. If I place any digital object in front of a window, it really is hard to see the digital object because of the lack of contrast there. Windows are also challenge for the meshing and tracking capabilities. Magic Leap delivery team instructed me to lower my blinds to be able to use the product. While this works in a controlled environment, it could be a challenge in the real world where you might not be able to control the surroundings.
Use cases
Overall, this is a vastly improved iteration of MR technology with plenty of immediate real world applications in real estate and enterprise projects.
For example, it can be used to place a virtual prototype of say, an airliner or a space station hotel or a new development property onto a coffee table and review it together in a dollhouse view with customers in real time.
It can also be used in real estate to stage existing properties virtually with digital furniture or to show what a proposed renovation or transformation of that space could look like.
We look forward to incorporating this into our customer offerings at Outer Realm, and can’t wait to see how Magic Leap continues to evolve what, at first review, is already a powerful MR solution.