Magic Leap Adds Virtual Reality Head-Tracking and Possibly Hand-Tracking (networkworld.com)

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Magic Leap Adds Virtual Reality Head-Tracking and Possibly Hand-Tracking (networkworld.com)

Posted by BeauHD on Wednesday April 20, 2016 @07:02PM from the hype-is-real dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Networkworld: Magic Leap has made progress. A year ago, the MR apparatus wasn't really wearable. This may have been due to the sheer size of the prototype hardware, or the software that adjusts the illusion for head movement and changes in perspective may not have been completed. The complexity of the mathematics of this head-tracking applied to the complexity of the mathematics of Magic Leap's proprietary light-field chip may have required more development time. The Wired report of Kelly's experience indicates the prototype headset he tested is now wearable, perhaps untethered from a high-powered graphics-rendering computer used by the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Kelly's report raises the question: Could Magic Leap have implemented hand-tracking, too? He writes, "When I raise a hand, it approaches and extends a glowing appendage to touch my fingertip."

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What's the point? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 19:08 · Score: 0, Troll

Virtual reality is a failure. It's been talked about for decades but hasn't been successful. It's like the year of Linux on the desktop. Neither will ever happen, despite the fanaticism of Slashdot users. People don't want Linux and they don't want virtual reality. The market has proved this.
1. Re: What's the point? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 19:46 · Score: 0, Troll
  
  I'm posting anonymously so I don't undo modding you down. I nodded you down as a troll because I strongly disagree with your post. Linux will charge onto the desktop in 2016 because people will run away from Windows 10. Linux has had a superior user experience, better security, better user interfaces, and better software for quite awhile now. Microsoft is now driving people to this better experience. And the time has come for virtual reality, too. Now that giants like Samsung are throwing their weight behind VR, people will start buying the technology and it will become commonplace. I nodded you down because you're wrong.
  - chipschap
2. Re: What's the point? by julian67 · 2016-04-20 20:11 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  You have to be a real arsehole to mod someone down simply because you disagree.
3. Re:What's the point? by JaredOfEuropa · 2016-04-20 21:12 · Score: 1
  
  People don't want airplanes. The market has proved this, because you can't even fit 2 passengers into that stupid contraption those Wright guys built.
  
  Virtual reality and augmented reality are in their infancy. What people played with in the 80s was a mock-up of a prototype of a proof of concept, and the fact that people didn't buy into it en masse proves nothing. What is happening now is that the technology is (almost) ready. Many people compare VR to 3D TV; a flawed analogy as 3D TV suffers from fundamental optical limitations that will always make it inferior to cinematic 3D (which *has* taken off). Instead, compare it to the smart phone, specifically to the iPhone. Revolutionary tech and new ideas? No... existing tech and existing ideas brought together for the first time in a package that appealed to the masses.
  
  The same is happening to VR. People didn't reject VR because they didn't buy into the idea, but because it was far too impractical, expensive, and of low quality. That is changing fast. It's not going to replace televisions; no family wants to sit with a pod on their head for 2 hours watching a movie, but it is set to become a game-changer in gaming and telepresence. This tech (augmented reality) has even wider applications; what these guys are doing is what Glass should have been. Again, it's not going to be something that appeals to anyone until it becomes wearable. Give it 5 years. And even then it's not going to have a wide appeal... but the market is there already.
  
  --
  If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
4. Re:What's the point? by stephanruby · 2016-04-20 21:33 · Score: 1
  
  The market has proved this.
  People want the HTC Vive. The market is proving this as we speak.
5. Re: What's the point? by stephanruby · 2016-04-20 21:36 · Score: 1
  
  Your post is ignoring the fact that people have been buying Macs.
  Hell, I even bought for a Mac for my software development purpose, and I don't own any other Apple product.
6. Re: What's the point? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 21:44 · Score: 0
  
  No, it's a war of attrition sort of thing. When only power users remain on desktops/laptops Microsoft will give up on Windows entirely, and Apple probably the same with OS X. So guess who's left in the end- Linux!
7. Re: What's the point? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-21 02:56 · Score: 0
  
  Slashdot is full of real arseholes.
8. Re: What's the point? by lhowaf · 2016-04-21 06:18 · Score: 1
  
  So, just to tie your points together, how much of that VR is available on Linux?
Describe the "glowing appendage" by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2016-04-20 19:39 · Score: 1

>> it approaches and extends a glowing appendage to touch my fingertip

Please clarify - WHICH appendage it extended may signal its intent.
1. Re: Describe the "glowing appendage" by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 19:51 · Score: 0
  
  It wants you to pull its finger.
2. Re:Describe the "glowing appendage" by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 21:02 · Score: 0
  
  clarify - WHICH appendage it extended may signal its intent.
  "Ouuuuch..."
Encoding by skovnymfe · 2016-04-20 19:48 · Score: 1

Encoding. It's hard.
1. Re: Encoding by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 19:55 · Score: 0
  
  Reminds me of when I was in high school and one of the kids in the class turned in science homework with obvious copy and paste formatting issues that clearly came from a web browser, including encoding glitches like you see here.
A teaching moment by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 19:58 · Score: 0

... the prototype headset he tested is now wearable ...

Yes, let's teach young children with growing eyeballs to never look beyond their own hands. What could go wrong? I already see busy parents handing-out iPads so their child remains still, this would be even more effective, if less portable.
Largest Enterprise in History? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 19:58 · Score: 2, Insightful

A bit of a leap to suggest that VR will be the Largest Enterprise ever. If it was available now I would not buy it, no real use. I don't play games and I want to get away from the virtual world more than get into it.
1. Re:Largest Enterprise in History? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 20:43 · Score: 0
  
  You're probably correct about VR, but AR will be everywhere once it's done right and is cheap enough. Augmented vision is awesome. Think everything that Star Trek visor could do plus far, far more. A small example: Like the physical sensation of reading a book but want the convince of a eBook reader? Carry around a single book filled with empty pages and let your AR device make you see text on those blank pages as if they were printed. The hardware isn't fast enough yet and all the software will be a huge pain to write if we don't improve software engineering, but we'll get there eventually.
2. Re:Largest Enterprise in History? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 21:40 · Score: 0
  
  I'm useless at remembering names, so I would like to see AR bubbles appearing above peoples' heads, giving names, partners etc.
3. Re:Largest Enterprise in History? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-21 00:28 · Score: 0
  
  the book doesn't even need to be empty :)
  doctors could even prescribe reality altering views to help you cope with situations, have stage fright? don't worry everyone in the audience is in their augmented underwear ;) You're a Huge racist? Don't worry everyone has their skin augmented to be the same as yours, it is court ordered so you can stop being a dick :D Afriad of clowns, face your fears, everyone is a clown >:) You are secretly attracted to men, your wife now has a moustash :{*
4. Re:Largest Enterprise in History? by q4Fry · 2016-04-21 05:27 · Score: 1
  
  A bit of a leap to suggest that VR will be the Largest Enterprise ever. If it was available now I would not buy it, no real use. I don't play games and I want to get away from the virtual world more than get into it.
  I think this is the largest Enterprise so far. We'll have to wait on the formation of Starfleet before we get much bigger.
I still don't get it? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 20:05 · Score: 1

Isn't this just the Holo-lens, but not working and years out and etc.
Every time I hear about it, it's all hype an no substance. Maybe I should make my own start up, put up a "hello world" demo and then say "It doesn't actually solve all wars forever while making you pancakes, but with enough investment it could!" Boom, billion dollars!
1. Re:I still don't get it? by Quantus347 · 2016-04-21 04:05 · Score: 1
  
  The hololens still operates on the concept of more traditional if transparent displays mounted in glasses/goggles. It's big claim to fame is that they are transparent and have the processing chops to integrate and overlay the display onto objects in your actual environment, like the demo when they build a minecraft world on top of a nearby table. It's still limited by the pixel resolution of the display hardware.
  
  Magic Leap's system can do similar things from what Ive read, but the key difference is the display is actually projecting the image directly onto your retinas, which they claim achieves a far superior display quality, one not limited by a pixel screen that you are simply viewing through.
  
  --
  Common Sense isn't as Common as people think...
2. Re:I still don't get it? by Namarrgon · 2016-04-21 15:20 · Score: 1
  
  It's a lightfield display. It's not so much that they project onto your retina (like single-lens optics do), but that they use a microlens array to project light from multiple angles & focal lengths, allowing your eyes to refocus naturally and eliminating the accommodation-vergence conflict issue. It also helps the virtual image to blend much more naturally into the real world.
  Downsides are decreased resolution (though they seem to have that under control), and greatly increased computation requirements. I don't expect their consumer offering to be untethered any time soon, but it's quite possible they've been spending all that seed capital on dedicated ASICs to help with that.
  
  --
  Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
why hasn't VR spred in porn? by sittingnut · 2016-04-20 20:46 · Score: 1

historically one of the earliest widespread uses of a successful new media has always been in disseminating porn; paintings, books, film, video cassettes, cable, bbs, dvd, internet, websites, streaming, torrents, etc etc, it is even true in ancient pottery.
so one has to ask why VR and AR are not widely used in porn ?
there has been efforts, but does not seem to have led to widespread adaption by either users or distributors.
maybe there are inherent factors in VR that preclude it from being successful media.
1. Re:why hasn't VR spred in porn? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 21:36 · Score: 0
  
  because the consumer devices are only just hitting the market, and there is porn.
2. Re:why hasn't VR spred in porn? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 22:47 · Score: 0
  
  Doesn't the oculus require a massive space heater/video card?
3. Re:why hasn't VR spred in porn? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-20 23:48 · Score: 0
  
  It's there: Pornhub has a VR section and Reddit has had a VR porn sub for a good while. It's niche because of the market penetration (heh) of the headsets.
  Like other VR, the impact of "presence" is impressive when done right, and weird and jarring at other times. Eye contact, for example, is very effective; OTOH this commenter finds that pornstar wangs are on the "giggle" side of the Uncanny Valley (and not the obivous power fantasy one might expect). Getting it right will take experimentation.
4. Re:why hasn't VR spred in porn? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-21 00:04 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  I was a kick starter of the DK1, I have a GearVR and the CV1 is coming my way.
  I have porn mainly on the GearVR from providers such as Naughty America and WankzVR and frankly VR porn is amazing, revolutionary and everyone, absolutely everyone who I have shown porn in VR has immediately brought a GearVR including my 60yr father.
  Now there are VR porn sources elsewhere but most of them are rubbish, VR porn like everything else VR needs a different setup, different way of filming. You need to ensure the positions of the actors and right, the height of the 180 camera, disctance of the actors from the view etc needs to be right.
  When it is right nothing else is like it. I have particular one I like with two brunette's one literally whispering into your ear while the other bounces up and down and frankly it's so real you have to override you instance to reach out and touch.
5. Re:why hasn't VR spred in porn? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-21 00:27 · Score: 1
  
  Here you are champ, wank away like it's the future!: http://www.pornhub.com/vr
6. Re:why hasn't VR spred in porn? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-21 03:23 · Score: 1
  
  frankly it's so real you have to override you instance to reach out and touch.
  You only think it's real because you have nothing real to compare it against! ZIIIING!
Magic Leap by PopeRatzo · 2016-04-21 01:37 · Score: 1

Here, track this.

--
You are welcome on my lawn.
Easy by s.petry · 2016-04-21 02:37 · Score: 2

People are finished long before they could ever get the gear hooked up, synced with software, and overall ready for actual use.

--
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
It is, and has been ready for decades by s.petry · 2016-04-21 02:49 · Score: 1

A bit of a leap to suggest that VR will be the Largest Enterprise ever. If it was available now I would not buy it, no real use. I don't play games and I want to get away from the virtual world more than get into it.
VR never took off because as you hint at, there are very few practical uses for the technology. I built VR systems which included motion tracking for DOD work. This included motion tracking systems. There were few applications that could handle the motion tracking, and it's nothing special really. There are few applications that can work with either VR and/or motion tracking. In most applications VR works best as a virtual button where when the tracking object hits a specific point an event gets triggered. After the "oooh, thats so cool" wears off you are left with the most inefficient button you can imagine.
People like the author of TFA seemingly have zero knowledge of the technology they get paid to write about.. Outside of DOD Aerospace and heavy machinery, like CAT, have used the same stuff for the same purposes. Meaning, after HFE (human factors engineering) it's for sales.

--
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Head-Tracking Done on the Cheap in 2007 by eepok · 2016-04-21 04:48 · Score: 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... He did this with a couple Wii-motes and the tracking bar. Totally wearable.