back to article How to get $542m from Google: Dress as a SPACEMAN with dayglo dancers – Magic Leap

Google and A-list venture capitalists have given more than half a billion dollars to Magic Leap, a mysterious startup that aims to "make computing more natural". Magic Leap Magic Leap ... your guess is as good as ours Magic Leap is based down in Florida, and has no products, revenue, or public business plan, as far as we …

  1. Gene Cash Silver badge

    "wearable computing systems"

    They'll still be Glassholes to me... I guess I'm sentimental that way.

    1. waldo kitty
      Facepalm

      Re: "wearable computing systems"

      i fail to see how a shirts, jacket, pants or even shoes that have computing capabilities ranks with the glasses things... i'm waiting for the shirts or jackets with gps and mapping to you can find your route just by looking at your sleeve... there's certainly nothing glassholish about that, is there?

      1. Cliff

        Re: "wearable computing systems"

        Emperors new wearable computing systems.

        Actually, that'd make a good limited company name.

        1. ecofeco Silver badge

          Re: "wearable computing systems"

          POTD, Cliff.

          Upvoted.

      2. John Robson Silver badge

        Re: "wearable computing systems"

        "i'm waiting for the shirts or jackets with gps and mapping to you can find your route just by looking at your sleeve... there's certainly nothing glassholish about that, is there?"

        And how many are you going to buy?

        I'll take a slim watch over something woven into a single item of clothing any day.

        It would also need to be phone/tablet independent for many operations - so needs it's own GPS and storage.

        1. monkeyfish

          Re: "wearable computing systems"

          And battery, don't forget the battery. Or at least, don't forget to take the battery out before you wash it.

      3. Ironclad
        Coat

        Re: "wearable computing systems"

        "shirts or jackets with gps"

        So Venture Capitalists can find their arses with both hands?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > Baffled? We certainly were.

    Absolutely mystified I think is the phrase.

    Was there some subliminal messaging in the presentation that by-passed me?

    If that is the kind of thing we will expect to see using their tech, there are more cost-effective ways of inducing delusions, LSD for a start.

  3. ecofeco Silver badge

    No product or revenue?

    "Magic Leap is based down in Florida, and has no products, revenue, or public business plan, as far as we can tell."

    Hmmm, this somehow sounds familiar. Where I heard of this before?

    Oh! But why would they need any of those things when all you really need in this life is the right connections? Which apparently they have.

    Wait. What?! Florida? Uh oh. You might want to keep an eye on this one, El Reg. Florida is known as the scam capital of the nation in the US. (outside of Wall St and Hollywood that is)

    1. frank ly

      Re: No product or revenue?

      It's a Magic Leap of Faith.

    2. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: No product or revenue?

      "Florida is known as the scam capital of the nation in the US."

      I thought that was largely confined to Boca Raton? :)

  4. Brian Miller

    Collect garden gnomes, something else, PROFIT!

    Interesting how they didn't show anything that actually had to do with wearable computing or computers. Fur suits and cue cards just doesn't cut it.

    The first wearable computers we had were those little things from Sharp, the PC-1500, etc. OK, more like stuffable in a coat pocket, but close enough. The next thing that really caught on, and is still sticking with us, is the "mobile phone," with more screen resolution than a desktop monitor.

    Since "augmented reality" is sure to be a larger distraction than texting, I'm sure that this will result in more Darwin awards (or runners-up or honorable mentions).

  5. Bloodbeastterror

    Have I had too much to drink?

    Please feel free to say "yes".

    12/12/12

    A two-year-old video on the Register? What am I missing? Duh...

  6. SoaG

    The last time we heard something like this...

    ...vague promises of changing the world accompanied by glowing praise and financing from all kinds of tech related bigwigs and business...

    ...we got Segway scooters.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The last time we heard something like this...

      while I scorn that (...) idea as much as you, neither of us are venture capitalists. Segway was a business gamble and so is investment in ANY, even the vaguest idea (or even "I have no idea" idea). You invest a couple of millions here, a couple of billions there, and generally, one of those crazy ideas or non-ideas take off and Homo "Sapiens" becomes hooked (facebook, etc.) and you reap your profit. Would you mind investing a couple of pennies here and there, hoping to get a few grand in return? Wouldn't you play the lottery for 1 p. when you can reap a million?

  7. Barbarian At the Gates

    With the ending of the Double Irish looming

    Maybe Magic Leap is the Next Big Thing in corporate tax avoidance for US companies. Want your taxable profits to virtually disappear? Take a Magic Leap over Cuba to the Grand Cayman!

    1. DJO Silver badge

      Re: With the ending of the Double Irish looming

      I was wondering about that, you get a hopeless but nebulous sounding company, stuff a truckload of cash into it and put some of your cronies, friends or relations on the board for huge salaries then do nothing for a year or two then it collapses so you can write the entire "investment" off against tax and some of your cronies, friends or relations have got rich.

  8. Mephistro
    Happy

    Yes, it's pure magic

    Gentlemen, please place your money on the table... Thank you.

    Now you see it... now you don't !!!

  9. Sir Barry

    WTF???

    I've seen art students put on a better show than that lot in the video.

    I'm going down to the Students Union with a video camera, maybe I can score a wad of cash with the results.

  10. imanidiot Silver badge
    Coat

    No product

    There IS no product and there never will be. That presentation makes it pretty clear they are just taking the piss.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I am a visioneer

    I envisage. I create paradigm shifts. Virtual technicals become concept realities. I create paradigm shifted futures where the art of the possible meet the landscape of tomorrows.

    Yep - that should be enough meaningless ballocks to sell it to people with too much money and not enough brains. I can haz Billions too?

  12. Allan George Dyer
    Pint

    I didn't notice the gorillas, but the spaceman didn't pass the basketball, either!

    And was that Ed Snowden on drums?

  13. Sir Sham Cad

    Augmented Reality

    i.e. superimposing adverts or advertising text as "supplementary content" when wearing your Google Glass or GoogleVR headset to watch movies or play games.

  14. Amorous Cowherder
    Facepalm

    "Magic Leap is going beyond the current perception of mobile computing, augmented reality, and virtual reality. We are transcending all three, and will revolutionize the way people communicate, purchase, learn, share and play."

    With that statement alone I bet the company folds within 18 months!

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Augmented reality and virtual reality. Pity they didn't throw in speech recognition for the Triumvirate of Crappy UI Concepts.

  15. Brian Casson

    A Magic Leap for Augmented Reality.

    Retina scanning lasers, selective pass-through, transmitting cameras and mesh to other users etc. Not really magic, but pretty cool.

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: A Magic Leap for Augmented Reality.

      Lord, save us from the "pretty cool".

  16. armyknife

    Titles are for toffs.

    I wonder if they'd invest in some smegma?

  17. ACZ

    And the technology is... Oculus Rift v2 with depth of focus adjustment

    It looks like the technology is going to be something to do with this patent application, which was published on 9 October 2014 (US equivalent published a week later): WO2014/164901

    Title: "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY"

    Claim 1: A user display device, comprising:

    a housing frame mountable on a head of a user;

    a first pair of cameras coupled to the housing frame to track a movement of the user's eyes and to estimate a depth of focus based on the tracked eye movements; a projection module having a light generating mechanism to generate and modify, based on the estimated depth of focus, a projected light associated with a display object such that the display object appears to be in focus;

    a lens mounted on the housing frame; and

    a processor communicatively coupled to the projection module to communicate data associated with the display image to the projection module.

    Also, this one: WO2012/154620, titled: "MASSIVE SIMULTANEOUS REMOTE DIGITAL PRESENCE WORLD"

    1. imanidiot Silver badge

      Re: And the technology is... Oculus Rift v2 with depth of focus adjustment

      So they are going to make the leap... to being a patent troll? (That seriously seems like the most likely application of that particular patent. It's not exactly all that innovative.)

  18. Ian Michael Gumby

    Yawn...

    See Eden of the East. (Anime)

    Then read William Gibson's Virtual light.

    There's more, but talk about prior art.

    Now all you need to do is to use blue tooth to connect your virtual glasses to the cpu unit located somewhere on your person. Use some sort of blue tooth communication to tie glasses, shirts/jackets etc.. to contain things like wi-fi, GPS-A units, etc. ..

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    aka the monkey discovery theme from 2001

    Most definitely apes ... that's rather important to the plot!

    1. wollo

      Re: aka the monkey discovery theme from 2001

      Gorilla glass screen?

      More bad news for GTAT.

  20. The Morgan Doctrine

    I'd like to see the data investors were given to make them part with half a bill.

    Google, Andreessen Horowitz, and Kleiner-Perkins don't throw away that kind of money on a whim. I would really like to see the offering memorandum. Hey, I'd even sign an NDA.

  21. Brian Casson

    Augmented Reality by any other name..

    Retina scanning lasers, selective pass-through, transmitting cameras and mesh to other users etc. all help to produce a convincing illusion. It reminds me of the first showing to a cinema audience of a film by the Lumiere brothers in 1895 of a steam train coming into a station. It is said that members of the audience ran from the cinema in terror. As you say, seeing is believing......

  22. Adam Inistrator

    patronage

    passing corporate money to friends who will return the favour personally. one of the perks of being a boss

  23. David Hall 1

    Someone should inform...

    The Inland Revenue ;-)

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    follow the money

    a PAC by any other name...

    with no other output, expect to see this "company" prominent on some politicians' donor lists.

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