News: Magic Leap Reveals Peek at New 'Undersea' Augmented Reality Experience

Magic Leap Reveals Peek at New 'Undersea' Augmented Reality Experience

The Association for Computing Machinery's annual Siggraph conference, taking place next week in Los Angeles, will bring researchers from around the to show off their latest innovations in imaging and display technology.

This year, the conference has a new headlining act, as Magic Leap will use the event as its launching pad for a new augmented reality experience. The app is called Undersea, and it dynamically generates a coral reef environment, complete with underwater creatures, in the user's physical space.

"Undersea brings a room to life with breathtaking underwater landscapes in an interactive reef experience, and allows us to focus on pushing the boundaries of graphic fidelity within spatial computing," said Dan Lehrich, vice president of production at Magic Leap, in a statement.

"With each Magic Leap Studios project on Magic Leap One, we expand the ever-evolving potential of immersive experiences. The opportunity to work at the bleeding edge of what's possible and pioneer on a brand-new platform is what motivates us, and we hope to inspire other creatives to push the boundaries and explore alongside us."

Image via ACM SIGGRAPH

The room-scale experience is not currently available through the Magic Leap World app store on the device, and there's no word on when the app will come to most home users, so the Siggraph event in Los Angeles will offer a unique opportunity to try it out.

In addition, Francisco Cortina, CG supervisor, and Derrick Levy, lead software engineer, will give a presentation to the Siggraph audience about the creation of the experience, which was built with Unreal Engine 4 and Vulkan 3.1 mobile.

"Spatial computing is increasingly becoming the norm in experiential entertainment," said Victoria Rege, the Siggraph 2019 Immersive Pavilion chair. "The quality and interactivity displayed through Undersea is a breathtaking look at how this art form is thriving."

The one year anniversary of Magic Leap One's release is just around the corner, and Magic Leap has shepherded several impressive apps and experiences onto the Magic Leap World during that span, including Create, Tonandi, Avatar Chat, the NBA app, Dr. Grordbort's Invaders (and the preview of an experimental multiplayer add-on), and Star Wars: Project Porg, among others.

Judging from just a few seconds of footage from the Undersea app, though, Magic Leap's latest example might be its most impressive yet.

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Cover image via ACM SIGGRAPH/YouTube

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