At the WIRED Business Conference today, augmented reality technology specialist Magic Leap and Lucasfilm’s ILMxLab have announced a “collaboration lab” to be used to work together on immersive experiences using Magic Leap’s technology.

In a surprise move, Magic Leap’s founder Roni Abovitz revealed a collaboration a year in the making to be centred around what was referred to as a “collaboration lab”.

“Lucasfilm has created some of the most iconic characters of our time. Ones that dare us to dream, unlock our imagination and excite us to go on a journey with them,” said Magic Leap Founder, President, and CEO Rony Abovitz. “Magic Leap is creating a whole new medium: Mixed Reality Lightfields, designed to harness the power of your imagination and take you to places you never thought possible. Collaboration between our two companies is a perfect fit, and I can’t wait to share the results with the world.”

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ILMxLab’s John Gaeta said “Reality is our canvas, there’s a lot of hardcore advanced technology focused on the integration of fantasy into your real life”

The news was announced by Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, stating, “the future of Mixed Reality and immersive entertainment holds incredible promise, and we are honored to work with Magic Leap to shape that future. At Lucasfilm and ILM, innovation has always been in our DNA; through this collaboration, ILMxLAB further propels our legacy of exploration and leadership on this new platform for experiential storytelling.”

Magic Leap and ILMxLab released a fitting video demonstration to highlight this incredibly promising collaboration, a ‘through the visor’ look at a digital R2D2 and C3PO projected into reality along with some hugely impressive tracking and occlusion.

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Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • Ian Shook

    Damn. That’s just exciting. The fact that ILM is working with them brings a whole new level of authenticity. Maybe Magic Leap is really a thing after all.

  • yag

    “hugely impressive tracking and occlusion”, indeed ! o_O
    Seems too good to be true for a first gen…

  • Smokey_the_Bear

    I wish they would show off their product…to release some of the hype build up. It’s an AR headset, that much we know, but I am curious about the specs. Would be cool to see the comparison done between their AR headset vs Hololens vs Meta2.