Not much is known about Magic Leap. Mysterious as it is, the company has a way of dazzling our imaginations with new possibilities. Magic Leap One is out to showcase MR potential, and now the company has revealed bigger plans. Magic Leap recently announced that it has acquired Computes Inc., a company dedicated to crowdsourcing computing power into a vast spatial Computes platform.
The case with Computes is a curious one. The story goes that with all the computers and other processing devices standing idle, we can actually use their unused capacity to power a global spatial computing platform. More to the point, via peer-to-peer network, the Computes platform has the potential to transform how we interact with machines altogether. No longer would we be dependent on static computers, but rather be immersed in a space with machines and machining.
Magic Leap looks to lead us into this new future. By acquiring Computes Inc., the Florida-based MR powerhouse set its eyes on furthering the Computes platform. “With over 27 billion connected devices in the world today (and growing), the Computes platform provides us with the necessary building blocks to make spatial computing available to everyone” writes Gus Pinto from Magic Leap.
Noble goal. As for the spatial mapping to work, it requires a tremendous amount of processing power. The idea is to distribute the intensive computing tasks to the devices that don’t stand idle at the moment, via a mesh network. The Computes platform is well under way with many private betas through which “we look to gain valuable feedback and begin developing a portfolio of services for developers, creators, enterprises and end-users”.
Spatial computing is a way to do away with static AR and VR experiences. Microsoft has offered wireless untethering functionality with HoloLens, but it is fairly local in nature. What Magic Leap and Computes are doing may have a resoundingly vast influence on how we interact with the world. “Any machine anywhere in the world can connect, communicate, and compute to perform artificial intelligence computations at the source, wherever that may be”.
“We’re talking real-time, no latency” said Chris Matthieu who founded Computes Inc. together with Jade Meskill. They both serve under new management director of computing services and the principal software engineer. “Jade and I” Matthieu said “started Computes Inc. based on a principle of enabling the next generation of computing, and we believe Magic Leap is the perfect home for us to achieve this vision”.
Mesh computing as imagined by Computes platform has the potential to mesh digital and real world into a unique whole. By teaming up, with Computes Inc. Magic Leap is hoping to bring the Augmented Reality experience to other devices.
The next few days will mark an L.E.A.P. Conference dedicated to Magic Leap One and spatial computing potential. Steering clear form giving out too much information (as one does), Magic Leap does promise a ‘few surprises in store’. The pre-conference announcement of the Computes Inc. Computes platform takeover is a great sign of what’s to come from Magic Leap.
