How does Magic Leap, favored by Meta, achieve the giant leap of the Metaverse?

Augmented reality (AR) — the superimposition of virtual elements onto our real world via full-on head-mounted displays or regular smartphones — is already everywhere, whether it’s Pokémon Go or an app that helps arrange furniture. As part of its mission to realize the Metaverse, Meta is getting involved in the space, and is in talks to partner with leading augmented reality startup Magic Leap, according to a report in the Financial Times on Sunday. **

While there are currently no plans to build a Meta-Magic Leap head-mounted display, the collaboration between a major promoter of the Metaverse and a major player in the commercial AR space represents a larger trend. Although the social metaverse is difficult to launch at present, the huge progress of AR technology has already had a profound impact in fields such as medicine, infrastructure and manufacturing.

Incorporating practical AR technology into Meta's immersive VR platform could play an important role in building a virtual world in which its users prefer to spend most of their digital lives.

Last week, we spoke with Magic Leap's Chief Transformation Officer, Daniel Diez (ahead of the FT's story), about the company's work to integrate AR into the US workplace and the company's shift toward building tools specifically for the enterprise. How that helped it develop the technology that is now coveted by Mark Zuckerberg. The following is the conversation, edited and cleaned up for clarity:

**EDIT: It is now apparent that the development of the Metaverse, AR/VR is actually proceeding on a long-term timeline that does not align with the hype cycle of any particular technology. Is this a benefit or a challenge to your work? **

Daniel Diez: The hype cycle is very important. They allow people to learn at least part of the new technology, and then there's the inevitable disappointment and frustration, but then businesses start figuring out how to use it, which is exactly what's happening now.

Take artificial intelligence: In 1997, Newsweek ran a cover article titled "The Brain's Last Battle." Then there was Watson, the Go champion that Google's AI beat, and now we have ChatGPT. Between these cycles, AI revolutionized industries such as advertising. This transformation happened between hype cycles and came back in a completely different shape.

**EDIT: Q: What role does Magic Leap play in the AR/VR hardware space? **

Daniel Diez: Magic Leap is a tool for work. It is a very precise tool.

It is being used in manufacturing scenarios; providing guidance assistance in healthcare and surgery; and for training first responders and police. These are precise scenarios that require digital content to be "pasted" into the scene in the physical world. I can put a digital model of my phone on this table and it’s always there, I can turn my head and it’s still there like a physical object. The device constantly scans the room and always produces a digital copy of the room. Its cameras are everywhere, including on my eyes, so it knows where I am and can seamlessly relocate digital content.

This is very different from virtual reality (VR), which is great for gaming and entertainment. But if I throw a tennis ball at you and you're wearing the Meta Quest Pro, there's a certain delay and you might not be able to catch it. When you consider highly accurate use cases like surgery or a manufacturing floor, the latency of seeing through VR where you might miss the ball is unacceptable.

**EDIT: Given the early days of the technology, how do you make these partnerships successful? I think about the disaster between Microsoft's HoloLens and the US military. **

Daniel Diez: One of the barriers to AR adoption is usually the content ecosystem, and right now that ecosystem is booming. It's a huge change from when the first HoloLens or the first Magic Leap were released, where there are practical solutions available now.

Another aspect has to do with the device itself and the development platform. AR is often associated with bulky, unwieldy, hot head-mounted displays, with unclear visuals, poorly readable text, and a very limited field of view. As we went into the production of the second-generation head-mounted display, we reduced the weight by 50% and the overall size by 25%, while the computing module and battery were still separate. When we hear that people are dissatisfied with the platform they're using, it's usually because they've had one or all of these issues, and we've fixed them with Magic Leap 2.

**EDIT: How does artificial intelligence power these tools? **

Daniel Diez: Magic Leap already has a lot of computer vision capabilities built in. Much of the scans we take, the 3D digital tools we create, and the interpretations our devices make of the world are based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. This is an inherent characteristic of the platform.

There is more room for that as we start to think about enabling platform-level capabilities where vendors can plug into a tool with powerful data processing capabilities to capture vast amounts of data about the physical world.

**EDIT: Do you think enterprise apps will ultimately play a bigger role in driving AR adoption than gaming or entertainment? **

Daniel Diez: We purposely choose to work with employees in manufacturing, healthcare and the public sector because we know we can deliver real value. These are the areas of work where people have become accustomed to wearing glasses. Therefore, we don't need to overcome additional hurdles in order to provide this value. The equation includes form factor, the solutions we offer, and price. These three factors will determine how quickly the adoption curve evolves. If people can get something of real value and help from wearing glasses, they will be more and more willing to wear glasses.