Google and Magic Leap reach agreement for AR partnership
TL;DR Google and Magic Leap have announced a strategic partnership. The partnership will combine Magic Leap’s expertise in AR and optics with Google’s technology platforms. It is unclear whether the partnership will result in a new AR device. Google has canceled and relaunched its AR glasses project (Project Iris) several times. Despite its tumultuous relationship […]
TL;DR
- Google and Magic Leap have announced a strategic partnership.
- The partnership will combine Magic Leap’s expertise in AR and optics with Google’s technology platforms.
- It is unclear whether the partnership will result in a new AR device.
Google has canceled and relaunched its AR glasses project (Project Iris) several times. Despite its tumultuous relationship with the XR space, it doesn’t look like Google is abandoning augmented reality anytime soon as it has entered into a partnership with Magic Leap.
On Thursday, Magic Leap announced in a press release blog post that it formed a strategic partnership with Google. According to the post, the partnership will combine Magic Leap’s AR expertise and optical leadership with Google’s technology platforms. We have contacted Google for additional comment and will update this article accordingly.
In the press release, Vice President and General Manager of AR/XR at Google, Shahram Izadi, said:
We look forward to bringing together Magic Leap’s leadership in optics and manufacturing with our technologies to bring a broader range of immersive experiences to the market. By combining our efforts, we can foster the future of the XR ecosystem with unique and innovative product offerings.
Although Google may have abandoned plans to create its own AR hardware, the company is working on creating a “micro XR” platform. This platform would be designed for AR glasses and, like its mobile operating system, Google plans to license it to manufacturers.
We may have gotten a little taste of it during Google I/O when the tech giant showed off a demo of Project Astra. If you remember what happened in that demo, a person put on a pair of smart glasses that worked perfectly with an AI chatbot. Julie Larson-Green, CTO of Magic Leap, said technology/google-augmented-reality-startup-magic-leap-strike-partnership-deal-2024-05-30/” target=”_blank”>Reuters that it’s looking forward to using some of the “cool AI tie-ins” with augmented reality that were announced at the developers conference earlier this month.
Before today’s announcement, Google was already working with Samsung to develop a platform for its upcoming XR products. However, according to Reutersit appears that the Magic Leap partnership will have no effect on Google’s collaboration with Samsung.
Earlier this year, Google revealed during a press briefing that Samsung’s XR device would not launch at Google I/O. The device would have its own “separate moment.”
