Comment by ArtWomb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ArtWomb | Hacker News Reader

Congrats to ML on shipping! Achieving the technical challenge of seamless natural and artificial photon sources will pay dividends for many decades to come. But in the immediate term, market fit is going to be the next enormous challenge here. Their paradigm is dubbed "spatial computing". It is in a sense, "high-fidelity" augmented reality. Close range precision tolerances for delicate design work is probably the most demonstrable application. Although it has yet to be integrated into existing pipelines for microscopy, etc. However, CEO Rony Abovitz seems to be positioning the ML One Creator Edition as a consumer electronics device for casual gaming enthusiasts?

I am just unsure which demographic they are targeting with a $2500+ headset. The tagline: free your mind. With a poster that even includes a reference to a VW microbus. Obvious roots in psychedelic culture. For which, undoubtedly, the experience would be immensely hedonic and synesthetic. How large is this audience of virtual shamans?

The audience is mentioned in article - it's dev kit for content creators. It's too bulky for general consumer market and there is not enough content yet. I suspect the current processing power will also be upgraded in final product for higher fidelity of 3D graphics.

So far the gaming industry was driver behind tech, but with augmented reality being so useful for industry (navigating warehouses, for example), this might change. The prices will drop, but I don't expect ML will be priced at <$1000 anytime soon.

Psychedelic application would be very interesting. Imagine experiencing something like Waking Life or Scanner Darkly wherever you look. A gimmick, but good demonstration of tech.

> Achieving the technical challenge of seamless natural and artificial photon sources will pay dividends for many decades to come.

They haven't done that.

Seems to me it is initially a 'developer release' for people to start working out what they want to do with it. That being said it sounds like it might be quite a challenge to get the price point down to something even a VR enthusiast might be interested in purchasing.

If there was a good AR app for managing medium businesses, this product could catch on quickly. The businesses could increase efficiency of their workers at very reasonable price.

I can think of good applications for this technology for example in shipyard inspection, factory management, city utilities workers, police, even farming operations.

ITs hedonic killer app will be something other than shamans.

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