The mysterious augmented reality wizards at Magic Leap have done it again! After announcing a partnership with Industrial Light and Magicâs ILMXLAB, the studio they created just last year to build immersive entertainment experiences in VR and AR, Magic Leap has dropped an absolutely insane augmented reality Star Wars demo!.
The clip shows off Magic Leap’s tech with a startlingly realistic scene featuring everyoneâs favorite droids, R2-D2 and C-3P0. As 3po briefs the user on âan army of stormtroopersâ searching for them, R2 plugs into a real-world desk, launching an extremely cool holographic map. Itâs kind of insane how real this looks, even in two dimensions. And the company claims the whole thing is filmed through their Magic Leap technology, meaning you too could one day host classic Star Wars characters in your very own living room!
This is definitely the AR experience weâre looking for, and the pairing of Magic Leap and ILMXLAB means we can count on a lot more crazy Star Wars AR to come! And while no one knows much about the specifics behind the Florida-based companyâs tech, this clip, like their past demo videos, has been setting our imaginations ablaze over what this could mean for the future of augmented reality. Just think of the possibilities here — you could wield a lightsaber in a duel against Darth Vader through your kitchen. Or force-push an Ewok through the wall of your bedroom. Or blast Jar-Jar Binks with force lightning right in your driveway!
So far all we know about how Magic Leap’s headset works is that it’ll project images directly onto your retina. This results in shockingly convincing effects because itâs basically recreating the same neurological process your eyes experience when they see objects in real life. Sounds like sci-fi, but somehow weâve come far enough that this cyberpunk stuff is just regular âsci.” Cool!
But what do you guys think? Were you blown away by this demo? Whatâs your ideal augmented Star Wars reality? What do you see yourself using AR for? Letâs discuss!