If you look at some of the latest videos posted on YouTube of Magic Leap One (ML1) users, you can start seeing people feeling the need to test it outside. It’s something that once you have the headset, you feel you want to do The reason is that because the system is mobile and nothing actual limit you to do that.
Aside from that, users who bought the ML1, especially developers, want to test out the system to see how well it works in an outdoor environment. Test the unit to its limits, see how far is can scan the environment.
In this video captured by Next Reality, we can see the far limit which the system can detect surfaces and mesh them. It’s pretty close area, which looks around 3 meters or so. Check out the 0: 55-minute mark and you can see that the ML1 has a problem registering an area not far from the user.
Now, this is not something that we didn’t know about. The headset depth sensor works from about arm’s length up to approximately 9.8feet to 16.4 feet (3-5 meters) range as reported by CNET.
This limits the ML1 mixed reality glasses functionality in outdoor environments. I was dreaming about playing large-scale outdoor games with the Magic Leap, but this is obviously something that developers will be aware of and adapt to. This basically makes the ML1 a headset that will be used indoors in almost all cases. It’s just not a headset that you’ll benefit from taking outdoors. I don’t see developers putting an effort into creating apps for outdoor use knowing about this limitation.
On one side I am disappointed, but on the other hand, I do acknowledge the fact that the first ML headset isn’t designed for that, and I know this is one aspect of the headset that Magic Leap will definitely push to improve in a future headset. The ML headset can help improve productivity in different work/manufacturing environments. Having this depth scan limit can prevent Magic Leap from reaching certain workspaces. Of course, Magic Leap doesn’t ignore all the outdoor use opportunities. This is why I do believe that this feature will continue to be improved gradually in future versions of the headset.
This outdoor videos can ignite the imagination but they just show us that the Magic Leap One isn’t ready for prime time, and it’s indeed an initial device that was designed mainly for developers and early adopters and definitely the best is yet to come. I have no idea when Magic Leap will introduce a new headset, but it definitely needs to improve in some key areas so it can appeal to a larger audience, even those in the early adopters market segment.