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Comment by luka-birsa | Hacker News Reader

Looking from afar it really looks like Magic Leap is the largest money laundering vehicle that everybody is using. It's either that or the tech is so freaking groundbreaking that it is literally going to melt brains.

Given my age, the cynic is winning.

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Given my age, I would bet that it is great technology, but also that they are spending money ridiculously. Most likely outcome is probably something like what happened to the Iridium satellite network from 1996-2002:

a) massive profligate spending

b) great tech, but not much money from customers

c) bankruptcy and acquisition by a new corporation formed to acquire the assets of the defunct company, new acquisition-corp renames itself to magic leap.

d) new company which has acquired everything for pennies on the dollar proceeds to become successful and profitable.

Apparently their tech is pretty awesome but getting it down to portable is what’s taking so long.

That might be a rumor but it’d make sense for how much money they’re pulling in.

I think any kind of AR glasses that do not look like regular glasses are going to be a tough sell to the general public at least. I think we're still years away from this kind of tech though. I mean if it were possible today Apple would be all over it. Can Magic Leap pull it off before Apple if it is at all possible to do it in the next 5 to 10 years? I'm doubtful.

> look like regular glasses

This just isn't possible in the foreseeable future. Maybe someone will figure out how to fit enough processing power for decent AR into the "regular glasses" form-factor within the next couple decades, but there is no discernible path to a viable battery that could work in that form-factor even if we didn't have to also make room for the GPU. Additionally, none of this takes into account heating issues. If this goal is ever reached, its so far out that it's impossible to predict which company will achieve it.

as a person who has spent a fair amount of time researching the current state of the art for battery technology, both in watt-hours per kilogram and watt-hours per cubic cm: I have to agree with you. Anything with sufficient processing power to drive a high resolution, 60 fps AR display is going to need a good amount of battery. And that amount of battery is not going to fit into a google glass or hololens sized thing without needing to be recharged every half hour of usage.

That's why long term Magic Leap's hip-worn battery/processor and Apple's likely to be iPhone connected to glasses solution will trump the all-in-one Hololens style design.

Very good point. But even iPhones can't do HD 60fps video + bluetooth for too long. I guess if it's just used to send AR text and tiny UI that could last longer.

Speculation but it would be interesting if the rumored over ear headphones contained additional power that could be routed to the glasses/phone. It’s another place with space that could contribute.

Not to mention that I would like to avoid getting second degree burns on my temples every time my glasses recognize my Uncle Ron.

The typical life-cycle in tech is to make something awesome, even if it's big at first, and then shrink it down. If it's really awesome, no one will care that it's big. Waiting until something is small before unleashing it seems to me like they don't actually have anything at all.

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