Friday, July 13, 2018

Wa-wa.

The Digest: Magic Leap’s Disappointing Demo Could Be A Death Knell For AR.

"ROSE-TINTED GLASSES. $2.3 billion. That’s how much Magic Leap had raised by March of this year. That’s a lot of pocket change for the Florida-based augmented reality startup. You might remember them from that video where a gigantic virtual blue whale leapt out of a gym floor in front of an awestruck audience."

This years Augmented Reality conference was billed as - go big or go home. In my head I was like - game on! I went to the very first Augmented Reality conference, it might have been 10 years ago now and I've watched this segment be overhyped to death. Is it cool? Sure! But it has to be cool enough to put up with wearing glasses. And my firmly held belief is that people just don't want to wear glasses.

The truth of the matter is that if it weren't for Pokeman Go, almost no one would know what Augmented Reality is.  Sure they use it in sporting events and so on. But really Pokeman was made it gain pretty much all the traction it has.

Interestingly the article goes on to say:

"Microsoft, one of the biggest players in the mixed reality headset market, is still going full steam ahead with its HoloLens — a mixed reality headset that first shipped in 2016. Its proposed applications, however, are a bit different than those for Magic Leap. Microsoft has its eyes on industrial applications: architects examining virtual models of houses, holographic conference calls, and hardhat-mounted augmented reality for construction workers. Magic Leap seems to be aiming at something far more playful, more fun, and perhaps more likely to integrate into the daily life of the average person."

Is it? I don't think it's going full steam at all. You may remember that I stood in line to see the Hololens just in June. I wrote about it because if something was going full steam ahead, you would be trying to sell those items, and people working their booth didn't even know how much the SDK (software development kit) sold for.

Even more telling was Microsoft discontinuing the Kinnect for the Xbox One basically killing motion gaming on that platform. So I'm guessing none of this crap is going full steam ahead.

It isn't to say VR and AR aren't amazing. They are. They just aren't compelling. You need a really good reason to put up with wearing glasses. I believe there is still life in Augmented Reality in manufacturing because those sectors already wear bulky head gear.

But right now, Magic Leap appears to be the Theranos of gaming. And who doesn't want to look like Riddick. Right? Said in the most sarcastic way.

I also wanted to add that this release looks a lot like the Google Glass release. I went to a developers conference once and they'd completely talked me out of wanting to try it. I still have never tried Google Glass.

1 comment: