AR Use case

Things like this show what developers are up to with AR.

It's Magic Leap, but you can be sure that they'll have a Hololens app as well. (And that Magic Leap will use the best Near Eye display they can find.)

(I tried both Magic Leap, and Hololens 1 and believe they were using the same display.)

Next Reality

Yahoo News
 

Race to Replace Smart Phones

Got the heads up on this from a couple of different sources last night and this morning.

This is where we are.

Given that Microsoft is shipping... it will be happening sooner than CNBC thinks.

CNBC

Fox News

The video is from Fox news.... I've had trouble getting it to play.

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Most of the biggest names in Big Tech are racing to create smart glasses that we wear everywhere and that may replace our phones.

Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Snap, Facebook Apple, Magic Leap and others are all working on some form of smart glasses or headset that will change how we view the world around us. Instead of pulling a phone out of our pockets to talk to people or interact with apps, we may do these things simply by speaking to, and looking through, a set of glasses.

There’s a race to be the first to make a set of glasses that everyone will wear, which means they have to be fashionable and sleek enough to wear all day and everywhere you go. Advocates of the technology hope that you’ll one day be able to replace every screen in your life with just one pair of smart glasses.

Visit to Taqtile -- Everyone is an Expert

I had an opportunity to meet Dirck Schou at Taqtile in Seattle this week.

Taqtile offers a suite of VR, mixed reality and mobile apps. The technology lets users view holographic maps and models of cities, build trade skills through VR learning and collaborate using 3D holographic visualization.
They are on the front lines of making 3D computing useful.  They are known for Holomaps. (Which have been demonstrated by Microsoft)

The enthusiasm for this tech is huge, and they are able to easily share one person's expertise with any number of other people. The results are extremely promising, with error reduction, time and cost savings.

I'll admit I was rather hung up on using it to train people, but there are often things that need to be done -- but only rarely.... with these tools, it's possible to simply record a procedure --- and the next person, using Hololens, could be walked through the entire procedure and do it exactly, without having to learn it.

In their meeting room I walked through a pre-flight of a Cessna 172 -- as though the airplane were in the room with us. It was fantastic.

---- the bottom line is that the benefits of this go straight to the bottom line. There is an immediate and measurable benefit to using this tech.

It's difficult to find investing opportunities where this is true and it's still unknown.  (people still think this is science fiction, but it's real.)




I see Manifest like the Adobe Creative Suite for Hololens. Their tagline is "Everyone is an expert." Their software can help people easily take an augmented reality device (they work with Magic Leap, Hololens & iPad... other devices were mentioned.)

AUTHOR
Subject matter experts (Authors) can intuitively create stored step-by-step procedures with minimal training. Manifest does not require specialized knowledge of 3D, CAD publishing tools, or coding to create guided content.


ANNOTATE
Overlay markers and position indicators to identify key components and locations upon real-world equipment. Text instructions, 3D ink annotations, and attached document bookmarks can be created with ease.


CAPTURE
In situ recording of multimedia content like videos, pictures, and audio using a HoloLens, Magic Leap, or iPad.


COMPOSE
Utilize the Manifest web portal to easily add content such as static or animated 3D models, existing videos & pictures, as well as document & diagram attachments.

" Anyone can create content on real world equipment. Use Manifest software on a device or the Manifest web portal to quickly author stored procedures."

"With Manifest, Flow can offer demos of their featured waterjet cutting equipment like never before. Manifest allows for marketing content to be displayed over real equipment in a trade show or showroom environment, or over a digital replica so potential customers can see how it will fit in their space. Embedded video content enables prospective clients to see how the real model functions."

Holomaps by Taqtile

3D Computing will be a GIGANTIC leap forward

Since human beings first started recording data to share they could work only in two dimensions... that's true until now, but that's changing.

We added audio and video, which helped of course, but even video is two dimensional. We can fake it, but it's not that useful, and you still need to be anchored to a chair to use it -- sort of. (With smartphones and tablet computers,  you can abandon the chair, and get your video or other data wherever you happen to be. PicoP display only can feature here.)

The Clay Tablet with Cuniform and the iPad, are the same in that they are two-dimensional.

The clay tablet was a huge leap forward from having to speak or demonstrate information in person at all times. That concept became much more user friendly as materials improved: first to papyrus, then paper. Then duplication improved -- scribes, the printing press, huge improvements on the printing press over centuries, then we started using electronics and duplication could happen millions of times instantly.

So, what happens now?

Doing is going to get easier. Learning is going to get a lot easier. A new teaching tool will make it possible to make people much more effective -- smarter and more capable. Which will improve life significantly for most people.

Information and entertainment could be layered everywhere.

The difference between 2D doing stuff and 3D doing stuff? I've been trying to figure out how to relay that effectively for a while now. Mostly because there aren't many good examples depicting what 3D computing will actually look like.

Auto fuel and hydraulic systems... 

If you work on cars now, you have to have developed some skills at reading schematics.. and you must have the experience of finding what is referenced on the schematic and finding it in reality... it's a significant skill set.  You get pictures like the above... that's it.

What it's depicting looks like this in reality. (Now take the picture below and put it in motion -- zooming in and out -- superimposed on the actual vehicle AS you work on it.) What was very difficult before becomes an order of magnitude easier.



That's going to be the difference.

I can't wait to learn languages with Hololens. Imagine being able to walk around and have an immensely patient teacher telling you what everything is in a foreign language all day long. What used to take years will take a month or two.

Tech companies know that this is going to be huge, and all the big tech companies are getting involved..... selling shovels to gold miners.

Teaching and learning

Magic Leap, Layers on the earth

This is the best explanation I've seen so far about the impact mixed reality can have.

As though you could turn on different notation for the world. Most of us won't want to see energy and water or communications layers. Being able to see a "transportation" layer could help us find our way around a large city with multiple modes of public transport.

This would be incredible at helping us do things.

And they plan a LOT of entertainment layers.

Futurism

Magic Leap Blog

the “Magicverse,” a series of digital layers that would exist in AR over the physical world.

Magic Leap, Facebook, Google, Microsoft...

The whole article is interesting. It tells me that Microsoft is really ahead of the curve with display, and some of their competitors really don't know that they are yet.

Reminding me of how Apple had developers working on content that will work with glasses (while working for iPhones and iPads.)

The article teases "When" but doesn't do a good job of answering it... although there are two very important take-aways:

THE FUTURE OF COMPUTERS IS SPATIAL

The people and companies above, and others like them, will have to listen closely to successfully navigate the technological shift over the next decade.

Everything that is on a flat screen is second to something that is in 3D --- Give it 20 years and kids will look at flat screens like a lot of us look at black and white televisions or rotary phones.

And, this is a process that is going to involve numerous upgrade cycles over a decade or more, this is all just beginning. Like tube televisions or LCD screens, I think the laser near eye display is going to be the best solution for a decade or more... 


Fast Company

What we really want to know is what we always want to know: How soon? When will the “Magicverse,” as Magic Leap calls it, be as accessible as picking up a svelte pair of XR glasses from my night table and putting them on?

A better question is how quickly the technology is moving toward a more refined experience, and what challenges remain. To find out, I asked experts from various companies that will play big roles in the developing XR ecosystem. (Some responses have been lightly edited for clarity.)

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It’s about all those digital layers working together and providing you information. And that information could be a bus route. Or if you’re an engineer it could be about understanding what the sewage system looks like underneath the city. These functional layers are almost like radio stations in a way. You can tune into the transportation layer, which might say here’s where all the buses are, here’s where all the Ubers are, here’s where all the trains are, here’s where all the flying Ubers are!

“But then you might tune into the entertainment one. There will be dozens, hundreds, thousands of the entertainment ones alone. (LAYERS) You know we love to be entertained as humans. So you could tune into the Game of Thrones channel and you’re walking down the Embarcadero and there’s a dragon flying and you’re seeing it and I’m seeing it and we’re interacting with it and we’re having this shared experience. You think of Pokémon Go, but much more realistic and much more engaging because now you’re able to see in three dimensions that character happening. That’s what we mean when we talk about ‘the Magicverse.’ It’s all about serving that digital content.”

“[Customers] did tell us a number of things we could improve on with the HoloLens 2, and the ones we chose to concentrate on were immersion, comfort, and usefulness out of the box.

“Looking forward we will continue to invest in those same three categories. What you’ll see in the next version is even more immersiveness, more comfort, and more applications that have more value. It’s relatively easy to do any one of those things but it’s hard to do all three.

“You can make it more immersive by including more powerful displays, but that’s going to make the device bigger, heavier, hotter, and have a shorter battery life. You can make it more comfortable by making it weigh less, but then you give up computing power. So it’s relatively easy to do any one of those things–the challenge is achieving advancements in all three areas. 

FOR FACEBOOK, AR/VR’S KILLER APP IS TOGETHERNESS

Facebook is thought to have some of the best computer vision and spatial computing talent in the industry working on social experiences in VR (like Spaces), and on AR experiences for smartphone apps like Instagram, Messenger, and Facebook. Facebook’s first consumer product, the Portal home speaker/camera, offers some AR experiences–expect the company to add more in the future. The company owns Oculus, which develops VR headsets, but it’s likely exploring options for releasing more of its own AR hardware products in the future.

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It’ll be consumers that decide these things over time. The people and companies above, and others like them, will have to listen closely to successfully navigate the technological shift over the next decade.

A Visit to Comotion at the University of Washington

I had a chance to go try Magic Leap today. Of the major players this is the last one for me to try. (although everything will probably change in less than a week.)

If I were to make my best guess it would be that the displays contained in Magic Leap are the same as in the recent version of the Hololens.

As far as I could tell, the field of view, opacity and brightness are identical. -- caveat being that I'm operating from memory on the Hololens... although I did go back and see Hololens last weekend.)

I think MicroVision can be included in every company's near eye displays, just like they can use the same lightbulbs or processors in numerous applications. Nomad had better field of view.

The differences in user interface, setup and content are significant.

COmotion Labs AR/VR/MR

Unlike the Hololens (current version) the computer isn't self-contained in the head mount. The Round puck thing the same size as the phone needs to be carried with the unit. It fits over a pocket (half in the pocket, half out, which is pretty smart and convenient. Although it does get dropped.)

The little device seen through the head piece is a "wand" that you use as a pointer. When you use this as you're using the device, it's as though you have a laser wand, and you use it to point and click. I'd say it's more intuitive than the gesture control of the Hololens, but it is an extra piece that you need to keep track of.

Regular users I think would prefer the gesture control, because then after a short learning curve you don't need extra tools.

I wasn't allowed to take pictures in the space. There were a number of groups of people working on some very interesting looking things, and a lot of people sitting at desks looking at code.

Here's what they're working on
They do seem to have some interesting company in the building. 

Thanks for the tour Xuny!

Customs and Border Patrol

Augmented Reality is going to be everywhere and it's going to come faster than we anticipate --- because it's going to be so useful.

Imagine the tediousness of the task a customs officer would have, looking at and in packages, and trying to figure out, with written descriptions whether or not things are counterfeit, legit, or concealing something else.

The efficiency and effectiveness of the people working here will be increased dramatically by this tech.

Holding the maker of the best AR display is going to be gold.



GCN - Technology, Tools & Tactics

In the latest project, CBP agents are using Microsoft HoloLens augmented-reality headsets to inspect goods for intellectual property rights violations.

Instead of referring to paper guides to verify the authenticity of an imported product, the agents use a HoloLens-enabled mobile app to instantly access product details and compare the reference images to the physical object they are examining. CBP is also considering an app for consumers that would allow them to test items such as pharmaceuticals to know if they are legitimate.

Magic Leap, Hololens & the US Army

Often big tech advances (like the internet itself) begins as a military project, then goes consumer.
Near eye display likely little different, MicroVision was working on this stuff a long time ago.



HindustanTimes


Magic Leap Inc. is pushing to land a contract with the U.S. Army to build augmented-reality devices for soldiers to use on combat missions, according to government documents and interviews with people familiar with the process.The contract, which could eventually lead to the military purchasing over 100,000 headsets as part of a program whose total cost could exceed$500 million, is intended to“increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy,” according to an Army description of the program .A large government contract could alter the course of the highest-profile startup working on augmented reality, at a time when prospects to produce a consumer device remain uncertain.

Building tools to make soldiers more deadly is a far cry from the nascent consumer market for augmented reality. But the army’s program has also drawn interest from Microsoft Corp., whose HoloLens is Magic Leap’s main rival.The commercial-grade versions of both devices still face significant technological hurdles, and its not clear the companies can fulfill the army’s technical requirements. If recent history is any guide, a large military contract is also sure to be controversial within the companies.

Magic Leap declined to comment. Microsoft confirmed it had attended a meeting in which officials from the Army met with potential bidders. The Army’s Contracting Command is currently reviewing proposals, said Ed Worley, a spokesman.

Ronald Wayne

So a friend and I were having coffee the other day.

We discuss Microvision often.

At this point, everything is looking really good. We knew what was coming, and now it looks that at least one mass market product is imminent -- because there are several close at hand:

• Near-eye display (Hololens? Oclulus? Magic Leap? Glass) MSFT, FB, GOOG
• Interactive display? Smart speakers, smart displays? (AMZN, AAPL, GOOG)
• Home security?
• Auto LiDAR?
• Display only (Contract signed, best guess as to who is Sharp/Foxconn)

Rumors have also been circulating about a "surface phone" -- I sent a note to a tech reporter with a link to a surface phone post I'd done  more than a year ago.  When I did that an hour later, this document was gone.  It's back, but I suspect they hit some traffic limits. The background is interesting.

The amount of upward motion that could occur with this stock if these stories are confirmed or the suspicions widely circulated will be amazing. If one of them is confirmed, we're off to the races.

It's possible we start rising, and the tired investors will panic when there's a hiccup.

and that... reminded me of Ronald Wayne.

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Ronald Wayne (born May 17, 1934) is an American retired electronics industry worker. He co-founded Apple Computer (now Apple Inc.) with Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, providing administrative oversight for the new venture. However, he soon sold his share of the new company back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800 US dollars, and later accepted $1,500 to forfeit any claims against Apple (in total, equivalent to $9,498 in 2017). As of May 4, 2018, if Wayne had kept his 10% stake in Apple Inc., it would have been worth over $93.1 billion, making him the second richest man on earth.^[1]

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At the time, he seemed like a smart investor. He doubled his money in a short time, and he cashed out. Poor move.

A lot of Microvision's investors now are tired.

We have held the stock a long time... many of us have lost a lot of money and would like to get it back.

So, if we get it back and then some -- that's awesome, right? 

Not so fast.

Most of the rest of the people who find this company are going to find it after it gets mentioned in the same breath as some big names. Not before. Shortly after that it will start to rise... or it will before that.

some of the tired investors will be tempted to take the money and run... but if you're more patient, I think you'll do a lot better than Ronald Wayne.

Watching AR....

When you have the tech for the best near eye display, you'll have a place in most AR setups.

The companies working on it are working on displays, software, interface, computing hardware and CONTENT.

With the exception of Magic Leap, I've tried them all. The Microvision setup I tried was old, and it was still better than anything else anyone was showing. (Better than Hololense, better than Meta, better than Vuzix.

Magic Leap, Royal Shakespeare Company

All the cash Magic Leap is amassing is probably going a long way toward hardware development and manufacturing, but it's also becoming increasingly clear that a large portion of that cash will be devoted to content. The latest proof is a new partnership between Magic Leap and the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC).

Revealed on Wednesday, March 7, on RSC's official site, the pairing is being described as an effort to "look at how spatial computing can change the way audiences experience theatre." Specifically, the partnership will include a fellowship for recent RSC graduates and students, which will launch in the fall.

Royal Shakespeare Company

Gregory Doran, RSC Artistic Director, said: “We are very excited about our partnership with Magic Leap and the plans we have to collaborate together over the forthcoming years. We are committed to finding new ways for people to experience theatre and Shakespeare, placing the craft of theatre-making in new contexts and keeping live performance at the cutting edge of the 21st century. This partnership will build on our many years of innovation through performance and our pioneering digital work. I am delighted that this journey begins with an opportunity for young people to join us as we explore the vast opportunities that spatial computing will open up to us.”

Andy Lanning, Executive Creative Director, Magic Leap Studios, said: “At Magic Leap, we’ve brought together artists and engineers, dreamers and explorers, scientists and storytellers, who are just beginning to test the limits of a world where digital content is freed from behind screens and brought into your physical environment. We’re thrilled to embark on this journey with RSC and two visionary Fellows, who will define the medium and be encouraged to bring their existing knowledge and experience to take on the challenge of delivering the theatre experience on this next computing platform.”

AR hitting the mainstream

FoxNews
News.com.au

YOU might think you can’t live without your smartphone, but tech companies like Apple, Google and Facebook expect you to do just that in the not-too-distant future.

The titans of the tech industry are pouring billions into developing the device they think will replace our beloved smartphones — and the race is on to usher in the new age of connectivity.

So what is the device, you ask?

They are glasses capable of sophisticated augmented reality (AR) that will take the screen from your hand and fix it permanently in front of your face.

Sure, Google Glass was a major flop but Microsoft, Apple, Facebook and Google are all working on the new wearable product that, if embraced by consumers, will take us a big step down the path of cyborg consumers.

Lightwear Headset Hardware



It's important to note: that there will be multiple players involved. There are multiple problems to solve in the space. Software, hardware & interface. There will be sensors, displays, processors and other components to consider.

A company to do very well for its shareholders isn't going to have to dominate the space, but I think Microvision will dominate the market in displays. While I haven't tried Magic Leap, I have tried everything else out there, and Microvision's display is better.

Magic Leap Releasing AR goggles "Early next year"

There are a lot of players in this space. -- multiple technologies WILL be used.

This is a "development edition." 

• may or may not have whatever the final technology is included
• probably not the final "look"
• the concept and the tech are in early stages, so expect changes

There are going to be a lot of both triumphs and setbacks in AR.

AR has shown that it can make really fun games, and huge increases in productivity, so it WILL end up both on the market and successful (In my humble opinion.)

Africom

One Creator EditionMagic Leap's aiming the One Creator Edition of its goggles at early adopters and creators. Unlike its competitors like Facebook's Oculus Rift or Samsung's Gear VR, Magic Leap will use a proprietary wearable technology that enables users to interact with digital devices in a completely visually cinematic way.

The headset tracks eye movements, voice and hand gestures to help a user place virtual objects in real-life settings.

Magic Leap Picture

This picture.....

1) they have a heat problem
2) they have a size problem
3) Microsoft is WAY ahead of them 
4) we still don't know what they're using for a display.

Still interesting... looks like we'll get more from them soon.

Fortune

Business Insider

This early prototype was described to Business Insider as "PEQ0" and "the real wearable." PEQ is a term that Magic Leap uses to describe its current prototype. The photo is what the device looked like as of early January, and the source said there have been improvements to the prototype since then.

The board will see a carefully planned demo of the "PEQ" by CEO Rony Abovitz next week, using equipment that looks more finished, with belt packs instead of a backpack, the person said.

Scanning Fiber Projector

There was some discussion about a "scanning fiber" projector on the Yahoo Board. This is a link to a University of Washington paper about the tech.

I saved the link, have a look. Original Source, Wenku

Also important to note here that the technology that Scoble was so excited about was the Meta -- NOT Magic Leap, which is the only company I have heard of that was going to use the "scanning fiber technology."

Magic Leap - Augmented Reality

This is a topic that has come up before. It's possible that MagicLeap and MicroVision are connected. Whether they are or not remains to be seen. 

(I have tried the Nomad -- which is more than a decade old, and has a far better field of view than the ODG augmented reality glasses -- which Scoble has called "the best" available now. I'm sure it's been substantially improved.) MicroVision Full-color

Thanks to Roger and others for the multiple heads-up on the Scoble video.

The bottom line is that MicroVision is a leader in AR patents. There is a lot of work going on in the space. If it's a trillion dollar product for Google --- if MicroVision gets even a percentage of that -- we're sitting pretty. (A trillion is a thousand-billion - so even a bit player would be in the hundreds of billions.)

Meta

PatentVue (Augmented Reality and Head Mounted Display Patents)

Magic Leap Lands Astonishing amount of venture capital

Scott Woltman (Hololens & MicroVision)

Augmented Reality decompression.
Posted by Robert Scoble on Thursday, February 4, 2016

From PatentVue (May, 2015) 

Magic Leap about to produce millions of AR devices -- UPDATED

I've scraped this because I don't want to lose it. The source is TheVerge.

This DOES appear to have MicroVision fingerprints, but it it not confirmed. I have been watching Magic Leap closely for updates -- but again, there isn't confirmation yet.

The key terms I watch here is that the images are "projected onto the retina." 

Also at Mashable

Also at IBTimes

At TechCrunch

At TechInsider    (UPDATE -- good article) 

Magic Leap, which has raised half a billion dollars from investors including Google, has been building its technology in secret for years. But it's getting closer to show us its version of mixed-reality computing. "We're actually gearing up to build millions of things," said Rony Abovitz, the company's president and CEO, speaking at the WSJD conference in Laguna Beach, CA. The company is using part of an abandoned Motorola factory in south Florida and is now developing its manufacturing processes, he said. "We're not ready to announce when we're shipping, but it gives you a signal that we're not far," Abovitz said.

Little is known about Magic Leap's device, but Abovitz described it as a small, self-contained computer that people will feel comfortable using in public. It is believed to involve retinal projection, and evolved out of surgical research. (Abovitz's previous business involved medical devices.) And when it arrives, Magic Leap will likely compete with Microsoft's HoloLens, which is now taking applications for its development kits.

"ANYTHING YOU CAN DO ON A SMARTPHONE, YOU CAN DO ON MAGIC LEAP."

Magic Leap has a working software development kit and has invited several teams of developers to its Florida offices to begin making apps, and is regularly holding hackathons there, Abovitz said. Among the apps built for Magic Leap so far: a simple game that lets you throw a digital ball back and forth, and an app that projects a hand and a digital stove to teach you how to make macaroni and cheese.

The ultimate vision for Magic Leap is to create "a broad-based platform for visual computing," said Rio Caraeff, the company's chief content officer. That's one reason why Google CEO Sundar Pichai sits on its board — and why the company was valued at $1.2 billion last year, not counting its $542 million investment. "Anything you can do on a smartphone, you can do with Magic Leap," Caraeff said. "Where the world is your screen."

The company also showed a video today meant to mimic what you'll see when you're using the device. One clip of 10 seconds or less showed a robot named Gimbal hiding under a desk; the other showed a model of the solar system projected on a desk. Neither was anywhere near as dramatic as the shooter that the company revealed in June.

Augmented Reality (and PicoP) will replace traditional screens

This is great news for investors in the company that is the leading holder and generator of Augmented Reality Patents.

Who leads in Augmented Reality Patents?

“I believe that augmented reality will be the biggest technological revolution that happens in our lifetimes,” Sweeney said during a speech at the Chinajoy trade show, as reported by Venturebeat. “If we had this AR display, the deep thing to realize is this. Once you have an augmented reality display, you don’t need any other form of display." 

That is, of course, until you want to SHARE the content you're seeing -- then you need a PicoP laser projector.

Your smart phone does not need a screen. You don’t need a tablet. You don’t need a TV. You just take the screen with you on your glasses wherever you go.”

"The Unreal developer said he had seen tech demos of Augmented Reality being worked on by US startup Magic Leap, and although he couldn't elaborate due to a nondisclosure agreement, he "saw things that he didn't think were possible".

IGN