Magic Leap CEO defends his AR company on Twitter after photo leak
Shortly after a photo of company hardware was leaked, the CEO of the augmented and mixed reality company Magic Leap has gone online to correct the record.
On Saturday, Business Insider published an image of what it said was "a working prototype" of the Google-backed startup's portable augmented reality device given to it by a source. On Twitter, Rony Abovitz claimed Saturday the photo showed only a "R&D test rig."
The image depicts a man with a kit on his back that looks as if it's in the early stages of development, but Abovitz's tweet suggested it was not intended as consumer technology. "The photo you are all excited about is NOT what you think it is," he wrote. "The photo shows an @magicleap R&D test rig where we collect room/space data for our machine vision/machine learning work.
"We do this in order to understand lighting, texture, various surfaces."
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As Mashable noted earlier, the leaked photo has done little to assuage fears Magic Leap's technology has been overhyped. With investors including Alibaba and Legendary Entertainment, the secretive company is rumoured to be working on a head-mounted display that superimposes 3D animation on the real world.
A December report in The Information raised questions about whether Magic Leap was ready for primetime amid concerns that much of its work could not be commercialised or miniaturised. Two former employees also reportedly told the outlet a promotional video showing the technology in action was in fact created by the special effects company, Weta Workshop.
Abovitz concluded his Twitter statement by reassuring fans: "We will not let you down."
No word yet on when the world can see exactly what Magic Leap has been building.
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Magic Leap has been approached for comment about the leaked photo.
Topics Virtual Reality
Ariel Bogle was an associate editor with Mashable in Australia covering technology. Previously, Ariel was associate editor at Future Tense in Washington DC, an editorial initiative between Slate and New America.
