Well it’s finally happened, after years of covering prototypes and continued investments VRFocus can now report on Magic Leap’s first actual product, officially revealed today as the Magic Leap One Creator Edition.
The first inkling that the company was gearing up for a reveal came several months ago with a complete redesign of the website. Then last month the Magic Leap One name started making the rounds after a trademark application filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.
In terms of what’s been revealed today, the most information comes by way of several images which showcase the augmented reality (AR) headset/goggles for the first time. This is called Lightwear, which Magic Leap state has been: “Engineered to be lightweight and comfortable for hours of exploration. We’ve combined our Digital Lightfield technology with environment mapping, precision tracking and soundfield audio to produce amazing experiences that feel natural.”
As you can probably tell, Lightwear looks too small and compact to house a battery and processing power. This is achieved via the Lightpack, clipping onto a user with a cable running to the headset. The final part of the kit is the controller, which has force control, haptic feedback and 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF) movement.
In a short statement on Magic Leap’s website, Rony Abovitz, Founder, President and CEO of the company said: “We will be shipping in 2018, so stay tuned for more events, info on how to buy, the opening of our creator/developer portal, and just more cool and fun stuff. In early 2018, please also look for “Origins” – a bit of a fun backstory on how we got here and where we are going.”
As the name suggests, Magic Leap One Creator Edition is going to be aimed squarely at developers and creatives – much like Microsoft HoloLens – with that Creator Portal due to arrive in early 2018 opening access to the SDK along with all of the tools, documentation, learning resources and support they’ll need.
Currently Magic Leap hasn’t revealed a price but don’t expect it to be cheap. When the last funding round was first announced back in September, Bloomberg reported that Magic Leap plans on shipping a small amount of devices to select users within the next six months, supposedly retailing for around $1,500 to $2,000 USD.
There’s the first proper look at Magic Leap One Creator Edition. As further details are revealed VRFocus will keep you updated.
via Mint VR