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Weta Workshop Special Effects Company Helps Craft Augmented Reality Concept Video
Weta Workshop, the special effects studio behind a number of films most notably Lord of the Rings, partnered recently with a company called Magic Leap to put together an imaginative augmented reality video.
The video is a showcase of the potential of augmented reality for both practical and entertainment purposes. Weta's work is familiar to most, but Magic Leap (not to be confused with Leap Motion) is a new company that thinks of itself as an idea. Google invested $542 million dollars in the company late last year, but it's still a very mysterious company. On it's website, this is how it describes itself:
Magic Leap is an idea. An idea that computing should be shaped and forged to work for us: our life, our physiology, our connected relationships. That exploring human creativity is as great an adventure as exploring space. It's an idea based in the belief that people should not have to choose between technology or safety, technology or privacy, the virtual world or the real world.
You can check out the interesting video below.
Our Take
I'm far from being sold on augmented reality, especially considering Google, a company arguable in the best position to create a practical augmented reality device, has already all but abandoned Google Glass. It must have seen something special in Magic Leap, though, as $542 million is nothing to sneeze at. It obviously still believes in the technology on some level. We were all so infatuated with the idea of controlling our computers like Minority Report, but in practice (with Kinect and Leap Motion controls) it's just impractical. Why make a wide sweeping motion with your arm when a small, accurate wrist movement with a mouse does the job even better. This video is cool, but it just doesn't sell me on the idea.
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