Immersive AR for consumers is ‘five years away’, according to Magic Leap CEO

According to Peggy Johnson, chief executive of Magic Leap, a pioneering maker of AR devices, a viable market for augmented reality for consumers is that simulated images, like goggles, allow them to interact with their worldview. It will be superimposed on , probably five years from now. .

“If I had to guess, I’d say probably five years or so for the type of fully immersive augmented reality that we’re doing,” Johnson said last week. Collective[i] weatherAn online interactive discussion series hosted by Collective[i]bills itself as “an AI platform designed to optimize B2B sales.”

Magic Leap, a pioneer in developing glasses that allow users to see rendered objects in their field of view, thrilled Technorati with a teaser video and billions of dollars in funding received from Google in 2018. .

However, the first version of the product released that year did not disappoint. CNET called the $2,295 headset the best AR device to date, but there was some wailing.”Magic Leap’s AR hardware’s critical shortcomings.”

Joining the company in August 2020, Johnson worked for many years at Microsoft before joining chip giant Qualcomm, taking the Magic Leap from the first headset, largely a consumer sensation, to the business world. It pivoted to something more focused on selling to users. As the company says, “the most immersive augmented reality headset for the enterprise.”

The company released the second version of the headset in September. Ordered online from multiple outletsBut the focus is on building enterprise use of the product through partnerships and reseller channels.

The second version of Magic Leap enters the crowded market of enterprise AR and XR, covering devices that combine AR and VR. microsoft hololens is the most famous, but there are others. Vuzix goggles When lenovoWhen Google’s Glass Enterprise 2.

The Magic Leap 2 has a good initial response. CNET’s Scott Stein, who was critical in 2018, said: In March of this year, I wrote It says the improvements in the second version are meaningful and “a small but important step for a company that, like many others, aims to solve the mystery of AR glasses.” .

Devindra Hardawar, an early reviewer of the final product, said, wrote last month The second version is a “significant achievement,” saying it’s “easier to put on, far more powerful, and offers a dramatically larger (and taller) AR field of view than any headset we’ve seen before.” added, “It should be easier.” Thanks to the new Android-based OS, developers can work together. ”

But more fundamental engineering advances are needed to make consumer-friendly devices a reality, Johnson said.

“I think what you need is an ultralight device,” she said. “I think it should look like glasses.”

The benefit of the Magic Leap 2 is having the processor unit as a waist-worn accessory device, which consumers don’t fly, Johnson said.

Magic Leap 2.0 is significantly lighter. About 20% lighter and about half the size. As such, we have significantly enhanced our metrics. This was useful for someone in an industrial setting to use it all day long, or for a doctor to use it while at work…a long surgery. But still, for walking around, I don’t think this device is something consumers can put up with all day.

To create such a compact device, we face the limitations of current electronics, especially batteries.

It’s hard to get down to this size. Battery is a constraint. The processor itself – now there is a separate processor from the headset. That’s how we make the headset so lightweight, like hanging on your waistband or in your pocket. I don’t think it’s wise to build it into a headset at this point. There are other people on the market who have done it, but that is my biggest complaint. It’s clunky, hot, and heavy. And in order to deliver these to consumers, we have to solve all of them.

An engineer by training, Johnson said the continued path of silicon integration into chips would help.

Another big thing that will happen as time goes on is the same thing that happens with mobile phones: silicon integration. The CPU that powers our phones used to consist of many components. And my old company, Qualcomm, is putting more and more features into its chips. This allows for very small and lightweight devices as well as very power efficient devices. And we’re still on that trajectory.

According to Johnson, there are already some devices on the market, and “it’s more like a heads-up display.”

This kind of device isn’t as immersive as the Magic Leap, but “it might solve problems for anesthesiologists, like I just want to see my vitals right in front of me,” she says.

Also: 4 Best AR Glasses: Pro-Grade AR and XR Headsets

“It’s really simple. Just put a small display in front of your field of view and it doesn’t block anything else. That can happen today.”

“But I think it will take years, maybe five years, to have a fully immersive AR experience that is really a tool for consumers,” Johnson reiterated.