The Magic Leap Mixed-Reality Headset? It’s Now Available.

It’s all over the tech news, of course, but the Magic Leap mixed-reality headset, yeeeears in the making, is now available for developers, creators or anyone who wants to shell out $2,295 for ML’s inaugural edition HMD.

The Magic Leap One Creator Edition launches with SDKs, Unity and Unreal Engine 4 support, tutorials, preview experiences, games, the Helio web browser, the Twilio-powered social platform, and the LuminOS spatial computing OS.

After 7 years and $2.3 billion locked down in funding from Google, Alibaba and others, we have what looks like safety glasses your friends would make fun of you for wearing, but Magic Leap’s device and Lightfield technology does some amazing things. In short, the simultaneous mix of 3D scanning, eye-tracking, and going practically untethered is stunning.

The Magic Leap Lightfield tech integrates digital light at varying depths into your field of vision of the 3D captured space instead of, as with other VR/AR/MR tech, superimposing 3d objects, images, and the like, onto the space around you.

The Magic Leap device includes Lightwear (headset), Lightpack (processor, battery, memory) and a single wireless controller. The Lightpack is a small, fist-size disc of a computer that can clip to your belt or slide in your pocket–It’s that small. After you use something like HP’s Z Backpack, you wonder how anything that small can power any 3D experience.

So, how does it function?

Here’s how CNBC’s Todd Haselton described the experience:

I knew the experiences weren’t real, but it was unlike anything I’ve experienced before. None of the demos fooled me into thinking these images were really in front of me, but there was something calming about sharp, clearly rendered jellyfish swimming around me.”

And Joanna Stern from WSJ said:

While not as restrictive as Microsoft’s HoloLens, the Lightwear has a limited field of view that constrains the experience. Some objects appeared cut off unless I turned my head or took a few steps back. Mr. Abovitz says this will be improved in Magic Leap Two.”

Magic Leap (and their investors) are still convinced it’s a game changer. Me? I’m warming up to the technology for sure, but the design? It still has me cringing. Oh well, slap some stickers on it and I’ll be ok.

And speaking of design, I’m anxious to see what this new device offers for design and engineering, for visualization, and product development in general. We’ve seen what Microsoft and Autodesk think of mixed-reality design environments. What will this look like for Magic Leap and their Lightfield technology?

At the moment, the Magic Leap website and purchase link is stuck loading for us, but once up you can snag the headset for USD $2,295 here and for U.S resident only it seems. You can keep tabs of the reactions and latest on the Magic Leap Twitter page.

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