This is a fictional story of me trying to imagine how my first experience with Magic Leap One would be and in general, how Mixed Reality would feel like when I first try it. This is just episode1. I would continue this story in the upcoming days. I am not affiliated with Magic Leap in any way. This image just inspired me and I wanted to share to share this story with you. I need to set my imagination free, at least until I get my hands on the Magic Leap One myself 🙂
To follow along with my story. Please visit magicleap.com home page, scroll a bit down until the room is revealed, then continue reading.
Today I’ve decided to go to Magic Leap website to take a second look at the Magic Leap One Mixed Reality goggles and read about it more. What caught my attention wasn’t the goggles themselves, but that “Welcome to Day One” partly-animated picture on the home page on magicleap.com. It made me wonder how Day One would actually feel like? In this story, I let my imagination go free and I share it using a short story.
Part 1 – “Is this real?”
I watched that image for a few minutes and suddenly I could feel that experience coming to life. I felt party there like I was wearing those Mixed Reality (MR) goggles and experience what mixed reality is for the first time, like how “Day one” with Magic Leap One would feel like, same as the phrase on top of that image.
I’ve looked to the right. I saw those chained red leaves lying on this chairs. I asked myself: “are those real?“. I went there, I put my hand forward and I couldn’t touch them, so that moment I knew it was virtual, a 3D model. I grabbed it and moved it and put it back on the chair—The leaves fell over the chair like a flexible cloth, beautifully and accurately wrapping it like it was real.
“Wait a minute“, I asked, “Are those chairs real?“. Well, that’s a good question, I went to have a look. Both of the gray chairs looked the same, just rotated in different directions. I went to touch the one that was close to me, it was real, I could lift it up and feel its weight. Went to the second one, touched it, and to my surprise—it was virtual, not real. I mean, how could it be, they look exactly the same, I couldn’t even tell that the second chair was a 3D model, not a real one.
I continue looking at the room. At the front, some planets which are obviously virtual were stuck inside the wall, rotating a bit—this was weird, but I enjoyed looking at it.
“Oh look, there are books on the shelves, they are definitely real“.I went to the sheld and picked up one of the books on the lower shelve. all of those books were virtual. Just pointing with my finger to the book opened a floating window on the sie with a line connecting with the book, inside written information about the book with a big button “Read”.
I tapped it and in front of me a new window opened, showing me the virtual book in an Augmented PDF reader. I could swipe left and right to flick through the pages—this is so cool I said to myself and clicked the close button, the book went back to the shelf with a nice animation.
The whole experience felt surreal. The water flowing on the table were obviously not real but it looked nice. I wondered to myself how can I put an aquarium here, I always wanted to have an aquarium in my room.
I thought about asking the AI about it: “Alexa, I want to download an aquarium 3D model for my room“—a second later: “Hello AR Critic, welcome home, I’m downloading an aquarium app from the ‘Magic Objects’ library“. Apparently, there are thousands of objects there, some static, others dynamic and even interactive. In fact, some of those objects are actually apps that developer have created. You can position them in the room and they have their own unique functionality. Wow, these are how Magic Leaps Mixed Reality apps are going to be like, cool!
I was fascinated by everything that happened in just a few minutes. I wondered, what else is waiting for me there in this new Mixed Reality world. I walked a bit forward and I kicked a virtual toy by mistake. The toy rolled under the sofa. The sofa was real, I know because I touched it. It was amazing to see how the virtual ball actually disappears under the sofa. I mean, I could see part of it, but it’s the first time that I see a virtual object interact with the environment in such a seamless way.
“What else is there to explore?” I asked myself. This experience was surreal and quite confusing. It’s the first time I am standing inside my room and have no idea what to expect. It’s like I entered a different world where magic exists, but this is no magic, it’s Mixed Reality and how amazing it is indeed.
Note: What you read here is just a story made of my imagination, just a very small taste of what Mixed Reality could feel like, not using Magic Leap One necessarily. I will expand on those feeling, realities expectations and fantasies in Part 2.