Google Inc. and some other firms have invested $542 million in a discreet company for visual-display called Magic Leap Inc. which is located somewhere near Miami. The company is working on building a special device much like eye-glass, which will be able to project images that are generated through computer on real-life surroundings.
Although Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) already has its own glasses but these new glasses are very different from them. Google glasses are a wearable technology that has an optical head mounted display. It lets the wearer communicate with the internet through a natural language voice commands. By investing in the Magic Leap Inc. product Google is showing its far sightedness. Technology is something that keeps changing on a regular basis and our computer and smartphones that we know today are bound to change face sooner or later.
Google’s Android, Apps business and Chrome head, Sundar Pichai is set to join the board of Magic Leap and Don Harrison who leads corporate development at Google will act as a board observer at Magic Leap.
Some other companies that invested in the project are; Qualcomm Inc, Legendary Entertainment Inc, Obvious Ventures, Vulcan Inc (investment company of Paul Allen), KKR & CO, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Andreessen Horowitz.
Rony Abovitz is the Chief executive of Magic Leap; he earned a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Miami. When he was asked about his project he told the Wall Street Journal that he sees Magic Leap as a new buzz that will replace the PC monitors and Smartphone screens that we know today.
Magic leap’s website shows a small elephant bouncing on two hands with a slogan that says, it’s time to bring magic back into the world. The slogan is self explanatory as Abovitz’s vision of Magic Leap is nothing less than magic. The first venture that the company has under taken is the glasses. Magic Leap is designing the hardware and software for the glasses that will enable the wearer to see virtual 3-D objects as part of the real world. Simply put, the glasses will trick our minds into believing that the objects we are seeing are actually present in the surroundings that we are in; it will truly revolutionize technology. This device could bring new meaning to movies and video games; it will give a new standard to patient, doctor interactions. People will be able to use the technology to make long distance calls and the device will make you feel like you are sitting in the same room with the person you are talking to.
Magic Leap currently has 100 employees and it is still hiring more people. Google is financially supporting the company and the fact that Mr. Pichai is part of the board at Magic Leap shows how important this project is for Google.
Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) competitors like Facebook are also looking for innovative projects and recently the company invested in Oculus Rift, a maker of virtual-reality headset. The competition and the ever changing world of technology motivate the companies to invest in such projects to secure their position in the growing markets.
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