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."
SEE ALSO: How virtual reality is changing storytelling
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."
Hi everyone - the photo you are all excited about is NOT what you think it is.
— Rony Abovitz (@rabovitz) February 12, 2017
The photo shows an @magicleap R&D test rig where we collect room/space data for our machine vision/machine learning work.
— Rony Abovitz (@rabovitz) February 12, 2017
We do this in order to understanding lighting, texture, various surfaces. MxRL lives in the real world.
— Rony Abovitz (@rabovitz) February 12, 2017
We do this in order to understand lighting, texture, various surfaces. sorry - previous tweet had bad spelling :-)
— Rony Abovitz (@rabovitz) February 12, 2017
As Mashable noted earlier, the leaked photo has done little to assuage fears the company'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.
To all the @magicleap fans: we will not let you down. Back to heads down mode so we can finish and ship :-)
— Rony Abovitz (@rabovitz) February 12, 2017
Magic Leap has been approached for comment about the leaked photo.
