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It will be augmented reality, and not virtual reality, that will prove to be the next big technological leap, the director of The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy has said.
Peter Jackson, who sits on the advisory board of American AR startup Magic Leap, told Wired that the technology has a genuine chance of breaking into the mainstream in a way that VR may not.
This mixed reality is not an extension of 3-D movies. It’s something completely different. Once you can create the illusion of solid objects anywhere you want, you create new entertainment opportunities,” he said.
I find mixed reality much more exciting than VR. Mixed reality doesn’t take you out of this world. Instead it adds elements to our real world. And it has great flexibility. You can add as little as you want – a single tiny figure on this tabletop talking to us – or you can replace the walls of this room with a skyscape so we’re sitting here watching clouds float by.
If you have your Magic Leap glasses on, you can look up at the Empire State Building and watch it being built in the early 1930s, floor by floor, but sped up. Maybe while you are walking around the modern streets of Chicago you see gangsters driving past with tommy guns. It could be a form of education, entertainment, and tourism.
In 10 years I expect that mixed-reality technology like Magic Leap will be used as much as, if not more than, smartphones.”
Here’s a Magic Leap demo about the tech:
