The spotlight was recently on Magic Leap, a Google-backed company dedicated to augmented reality after a leaked photo surfaced. However, the CEO of the company went online to correct a few things.
Magic Leap has managed to raise $1.39 billion dollars in venture capital. This puts the company value at around $4.5 billion. The company is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, Google, JPMorgan, Fidelit and Alibaba.
Several reports were saying that the company's Augmented Reality (AR) device is in the photo. Business Insider published the image and pointed out that it was "a working prototype" of the company's AR device. However, Rony Abovitz said that it was not what people were thinking. The photo in question is apparently only a "R&D test rig."
"The photo you are all excited about is NOT what you think it is," Abovitz said in a Twitter post. In another tweet, he confirms, "The photo shows an @magicleap R&D test rig where we collect room/space data for our machine vision/machine learning work."
The photo in question shows a guy with some kind of kit on his back which seems like a tech in development. It looked a lot like a hardware that comes with a simple clear casing, which permits people to look at the parts that are powering the visor attached by a thick cable.
Abovitz also said in an internal email, which eventually got leaked also, that the most recent hardware prototype of the company is the called the "PEQ0b" that is supposed to be a third gen model. The "PEQ" designation is supposed to be a prototype, while adding the "0" numeration is telling it could be the first design for prototyping.
In some sort of final tweet, Abovitz says that the company will not let the fans down. It will go back to putting their heads down so the company can finish then ship, complete with a smiling emoticon.
