Battle of giants for control of virtual reality

This is a mysterious, newly founded company, which, although it has not yet released a single product, has raised a not inconsiderable sum of $542 million from Google and a group of other large American venture capital funds. According to unofficial estimates, the deal values ​​the company at almost $2 billion.

Magic Leap is not headquartered in Silicon Valley, as one might expect, but in the suburbs of Miami, Florida, and it is said to have invented a new improved form of magical virtual reality, which it calls "cinematic.".

The answer
Google's new investment, which is looking for ways to leverage its $60 billion, comes as Facebook earlier this year spent $2 billion to acquire another virtual reality company, Oculus.

Google is weighing its bets as it prepares for a future where laptops and smartphones are literally… archaeological finds! It is also noteworthy that in a rather unusual move, Sundar Pichai, head of Android, Chrome and Apps businesses, will join the board of Magic Leap, which already has around 100 employees.

Given the recent trial release of the "smart" augmented reality glasses Google Glass, it is obvious that virtual reality will be the new field of competition and technological innovations, which is expected to bring significant changes to people's daily experience.

Already, according to the Financial Times, the New York Times and the British Daily Mail, thousands of software developers have shown interest in developing related software, although the hardware is still in a very early stage of development. But all predict – and look forward to – a new mass market, although, according to most analysts, it will be several more years before these technologies penetrate people's everyday lives.

"Until we see the device, we're quite cautious and skeptical," said Brian Blau, a Gartner analyst who has worked on the virtual reality industry for two decades, a few days ago.

Magic Leap founder and president Ronnie Abovitz said his company's technology (which has yet to launch a single product) goes beyond augmented and virtual reality, creating what he called a "cinematic reality." The 43-year-old entrepreneur, co-founder of MAKO Surgical, which specializes in surgical robotics, also said the new technology aims to revolutionize "how people communicate, shop, learn, share and play." He also said the technology could be integrated into a pair of glasses in the future, so Google Glass could offer its wearer a "cinematic reality.".

The new technique, about which few details are known at the moment apart from a few related videos on its website, “adds” graphics onto the real world, projecting the relevant images to the eye. The end result is a strange and realistic augmented (enriched) reality. Something similar is attempted by Google’s interactive glasses, which “superimpose” digital information on the reality seen by the eye.

In contrast, Facebook's Oculus Rift technology does not overlay, but completely blocks out the real world, "immersing" the user-observer in a completely virtual reality. At present, Oculus does not have a ready-made product for sale, while Google Glass is available for $1,500 to interested users for pilot use.

Bell
The first sector to see the fastest implementation of these new "magical" technologies will probably be video games, with other sectors to follow. However, concerns have already been expressed that if the user is "immersed" in a reality that is often extremely violent and frightening, which will no longer seem virtual but very real, then he will even risk dying from his fear.

Danny Unger, creative director at Cloudhead Games, warned that “we’re very close to having the first (user) death in a video game. Someone is going to scare someone to death – someone with a heart condition or something. It’s going to happen for sure.” Research has already shown that video game “bad guys” who “attack” users often cause them a lot of emotional stress and anxiety. What will happen when games become much more realistic or when employees see, with their “smart” glasses, live sharks swimming around their office?

OCULUS
The platform that stole Zuckerberg's heart

About seven months ago, Facebook was the first to make an "invasion" of 3D games and virtual reality, as part of its strategy to connect users from different devices and types of communication and with the main goal of disproving research that claims it lost 80% of its users between 2015 and 2017.

Mark Zuckerberg's social network spent $2 billion in cash and stock to buy Oculus, which makes virtual reality devices.

And this happened at a time when the idea of ​​virtual reality had lost its... glamour of the past, remaining a project in university institutions mainly due to the fact that any efforts did not have the expected impact.

Journey
The Oculus platform – which consists of a set of special glasses and headphones – already has over 75,000 orders and is currently being used by game developers, while the result is impressive since it can and does give the user the feeling of being in another world. The company’s basic model, the Rift, is a visual device for video games. However, as Zuckerberg has stated, the social network has bigger plans for the device… “We will make Oculus a platform for many other experiences.

"Imagine enjoying a game from seats right next to the field, studying in a classroom with students and teachers around the world, or talking to your doctor face to face – just by putting on the glasses in your home," he pointed out. What is certain is that with the Oculus Rift, the idea of ​​virtual reality regained interest, people began to be excited again by its possibilities and experience..

• The value of the newly founded company Magic Leap, which raised $542 million from Google and a group of other large American investment funds, is estimated at $2 billion.
• Thousands of software developers have shown interest in developing software that will make the virtual… reality, although the hardware is still in a very early stage of development.

Source: imerisia.gr