Magic Leap’s hi-tech augmented reality glasses revealed

Magic Leap has unveiled the first version of its augmented reality system to be made public.

The Magic Leap One Creator Edition is designed to project light directly into users’ eyes to trick their brains into perceiving virtual objects as part of their surrounding environment.

It consists of a large pair of goggles that wrap around the head, a body-worn computer and a wireless controller.

The firm has raised close to $1.9bn (£1.4bn) from investors.

The Florida-based company’s biggest backers include Google, the Chinese tech giant Alibaba and the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek.

Despite teasing its technology for several years via YouTube videos and demonstrations to selected members of the press and analysts, it had kept close guard over what form its product would take.

Some critics had doubted the computing power required to create “lightfield” objects in real-time could be shrunk down to a small enough size to make it practical in the near-term.

That had fuelled speculation that it might never deliver on its promise.

Magic Leap suggests its approach is more comfortable to use for extended periods of time than other attempts to create mixed reality. The product unveiled is promised for release in 2018 and is being pitched, at this point, to developers and other “creatives”.