Magic Leap is not the only virtual reality game in town. Its publicity shots show a flying elephant and a yellow submarine on a town street, hints that augmented reality will play a big part. Other descriptions mention infra-red sensors and eye-tracking cameras to help the device react to the external environment. This would let your eyes focus on depth as they do in the real world, rather than remaining focused on the flat screen immediately in front of them. Patents filed in the US suggest that the new display will be able to create “light fields” or 3D patterns of light rays. But if the new device is capable of projecting objects in this fashion, that would be an entirely new platform – for creative content, and also, surprise surprise, advertising.” “You could argue that it fell at the first hurdle in the form of Google Glass, which everyone thought would revolutionise things but which hasn’t. “The thorny problem in this area has always been the user interface,” says Mike Butcher, of TechCrunch. Still, the investors must have been shown something to excite them: investing in a product that’s not yet profitable is par for the course, but ploughing so much into something that doesn’t exist yet is another matter. Google (and it is Google Inc, the core business, rather than its investment arms, that has invested in Magic Leap) can afford to throw money at things that turn out not to work. Thomas Cull, another investor, said: “I’m not sure exactly what the category will be called but it augments and brings you into a world in a completely realistic, immersive way without taxing your eyes or brain.” He has not specified what exactly the format will be, but promised that it would not be a clunky headset. Getting rid of dependence on screens, in other words. In the funding announcement, CEO Rony Abovitz explained that the company was building a “hardware, software, firmware and development platform” that promises to be the next generation of interfaces.

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