Last week I came upon an article on Forbes which detailed a "secretive" 4.5 billion dollar tech startup in South Florida, and the experience of the author in taking their groundbreaking technology for a test drive. Most of us have been exposed to "groundbreaking" advancements in computer interfaces before. Google Glass seems like a logical next step from the smartphones we all carry, but it doesn't appear to be trying to be anything more than a smartphone you wear on your head. Virtual reality headsets have also come a long way, but what's the point of total immersion in an artificial world if you're still confined to your living room, still worried about bumping your knee on the coffee table? According to the author of the article, David Ewalt, Magic Leap is able to render anything, from any angle, right in front of you. in order to curb my own tendency for exaggeration, I'll simply quote the article:
"The hottest ticket in tech is an invitation to a banal South Florida business park, indistinguishable on the outside from countless other office buildings that dot America’s suburban landscape. Inside, it’s a whole different story. A different reality, in fact. Humanoid robots walk down the halls, and green reptilian monsters hang out in the lounge. Cartoon fairies turn the lights on and off. War machines, 75 feet tall, patrol the parking lot.
Even the office equipment does the impossible. The high-definition television hanging on the wall seems perfectly normal. Until it vanishes. A moment later it reappears in the middle of the room. Incredibly, it is now levitating in midair. Get as close as you’d like, check it out from different angles. It’s 80 inches diagonal, tuned to ESPN–and there is nothing holding it up."
"For that matter, they can make anything appear, like directions to your next meeting, drawn in bright yellow arrows along the roads of your town. You’ll be able to see what that new couch you’re thinking of buying looks like in your living room, from every conceivable angle, under every lighting condition, without leaving your home. Even the least mechanically inclined will be able to repair their automobiles, with an interactive program highlighting exactly which part needs to be replaced and alerting you if you’re doing it wrong. And Magic Leap is positioned to profit from every interaction: not just from the hardware and software it will sell but also, one imagines, from the torrent of data it could collect, analyze–and resell."
This is where we get to the aspect of this device that I find so compelling: it's not just a disruption technology, its the greatest disruption technology I think anyone has ever heard of. We saw how how Netflix led to declines in cable service, and how Uber basically made cab drivers an obsolete profession, but this is a device that's going to make televisions obsolete, if only it can be made available to the average consumer.
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