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Comment by mosquito242 | Hacker News Reader

I don't know where I stand on this. To be raising such ridiculous amounts, they must have some incredible technology to demo.

If they're anything close to what the second demo video shows, then they're basically building Tony Stark's home computer interface in Iron Man.

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Let's hope so. We see a lot of promises with this and HoloLens, but somehow production versions are still not here. I'm still not really sure if the latter isn't just a prank, or at least mostly post-recording CG.

> they're basically building Tony Stark's home computer interface in Iron Man.

Since you're bringing up Marvel - I fear the reality, at least with first released products, will turn out somewhat like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeiJ2jHyy7U

> I'm still not really sure if the latter isn't just a prank, or at least mostly post-recording CG.

The first video had a text disclaimer at the bottom of the entire video insisting that there was no post processing or CGI.

The second video did not.

I rest my case ;)

I... totally fell for that. Thanks for making me realise.

HoloLens has been seen and used outside of the company, however. They have been touring several cities and showing off Hololens units to developers. I am not an MS employee, but I did get to try it out and do some Q+A with Hololens developers.

http://www.inferse.com/36577/microsoft-hololens-roadshow-201...

I don't think any magic leap units have ever been used by those outside the company, but I'm excited to see what they come up with.

http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/534971/magic-l...

I stand corrected. Thank you!

>To be raising such ridiculous amounts, they must have some incredible technology to demo.

I used to think along this line too. But examples like Theranos make me more skeptical

Yeah that was the first example I thought of too in terms of recent cautionary tales. I think there are some key differences though, namely that as a Life Science company, the scrutinity and examination of Theranos' tech is much much harder to prove with certainty. It's why drugs have to go through such extensive trials to be brought to market.

There's a certain amount of seeing is believing to Magic Leap. If I were to wear a Magic Leap headset and was able to play the game that they demo, I would sign on in a heartbeat. You can fake a demo, but you can't fake the game. And I'd imagine investors at this valuation/amount of money (which btw is 10x what Theranos raised total!) are definitely getting into the nuts and bolts, making sure that the tech isn't being faked.

Theranos has raised a little less than $90m according to crunchbase. These folks have already raised $592m.

According to Fortune they have raised around $750M http://fortune.com/2015/10/28/theranos-is-seeking-to-raise-2...

The rumor is that they intend to scale up a silicon photonic chip fab, which is very ambitious, and expensive. It will either be a spectacular failure, or a bold step into the future.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/538146/magic-leap-needs...

In the first video you will notice that all of the augmented reality images are presented as added light over the background. That is much more plausible than the the second video where there are objects that can be darker than the background or even opaque. Maybe they have some solution for that but I would not expect it based on my knowledge of the area. In the next few years, I would expect any solution to those problems to come with other problems not visible in the second video.

In the patents they have filed, the occlusion is done with moire patterns. Based on other acquisitions and job listings, the patterns seemed to be tuned into occlusion masks with layered MEMS optical shutters.

Doubtful the second video is real. Weta Workshop (http://wetaworkshop.com/) which appears in the top right, "[HAS PROVIDED] DESIGN AND MANUFACTURING FOR FILM, TELEVISION AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES FOR OVER 20 YEARS."

I think the second video is meant to be a concept showing how AR could operate for work and play.

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