Hat tip to Barbara Starr (follow her on Google+ for interesting news on Semantic Search and new technology developments), who asked the title of this post (using slightly different words.)
The Verge reported this morning that Google leads $542 million funding of mysterious augmented reality firm Magic Leap
You need to visit the Magic Leap website to get a sense of what they are capable of doing, and there are a few more details about this funding on their press page, including this line from Google’s Sundar Pichai, SVP at Google:
We are looking forward to Magic Leap’s next stage of growth, and seeing how it will shape the future of visual computing.
I like looking at documents such as patent filings to get a behind the scenes look at transactions like this one, and here are the patent applications about augmented reality that I saw assigned to Magic Leap when I looked at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website:
Ergonomic Head Mounted Display Device And Optical System
Invented by Chunyu Gao, Hong Hua, and Yuxiang Lin
US Patent Application 20120162549
Published June 28, 2012
Filed: December 22, 2011
Abstract
This invention concerns an ergonomic optical see-through head-mounted display device with an eyeglass appearance. The see-through head-mounted display device consists of a transparent, freeform waveguide prism for viewing a displayed virtual image, a see-through compensation lens for enabling proper viewing of a real-world scene when combined with the prism, and a miniature image display unit for supplying display content.
The freeform waveguide prism, containing multiple freeform refractive and reflective surfaces, guides light originated from the miniature display unit toward a user’s pupil and enabled a user to view a magnified image of the displayed content.
A see-through compensation lens containing multiple freeform refractive surfaces enables proper viewing of the surrounding environment through the combined waveguide and lens.
The waveguide prism and the see-through compensation lens are properly designed to ergonomically fit human heads, enabling a wraparound design of a lightweight, compact, and see-through display system.
Wide-field of view (fov) imaging devices with active foveation capability
Invented by Chunyu Gao and Hong Hua
Assigned to Augmented Vision Inc.
US Patent Application 20140218468
Published August 7, 2014
Filed: April 4, 2013
Abstract
The present invention comprises a foveated imaging system capable of capturing a wide field of view image and a foveated image. The foveated image is a controllable region of interest of the wide field of view image.
Apparatus for optical see-through head-mounted display with mutual occlusion and opaqueness control capability
Invented by Chunyu Gao, Hong Hua, and Yuxiang Lin
Assigned to Augmented Vision Inc.
US Patent Application 20140177023
Published June 26, 2014
Filed: April 5, 2013
Abstract
The present invention comprises a compact optical see-through head-mounted display capable of combining a see-through image path with a virtual image path such that the opaqueness of the see-through image path can be modulated and the virtual image occludes parts of the see-through image and vice versa.
I’ve seen many interesting patents describing technology that Google Glass might use, but this news adds somewhat of a magical potential to glass that wasn’t there before. Will Google and Magic Leap work together to bring us something interesting and new?
A couple more articles about augmented reality startup Magic Leap:
Mako Surgical founder reveals more on Magic Leap
What is the mysterious Magic Leap?
Thank you for including the useful resources on this post such as the patent diagram, Starr’s Google Plus link and the various links to the patents by Magic Leap.
Hi Matt,
Happy you liked this post. You’re welcome.