Magic Leap’s CEO, who just raised $793 million, is getting ready to mass produce his hallucinogenic technology

It’s official: The secretive “cinematic reality” startup Magic Leap has raised $793.5 million in Series C funding at an astounding $4.5 billion post-money valuation.

And according to Magic Leap CEO Rony Abovitz, that means the company’s mysterious “mixed reality lightfield” technology — which has been described by some as a combination of virtual reality and an acid trip — is getting closer to launching.

Abovitz tells Business Insider that the roughly 500-person team needed the hefty cash infusion to help it accelerate the manufacturing and launch phase of its product.

“We’re now setting up a production line to mass fabricate,” he said. “We’re sort of past the ‘sciencing the heck out it’ phase and now getting this pilot production level of it.”

When exactly the technology will become available to the public is still undetermined. Abovitz says he doesn’t want to put a date on it yet.

What is it?

So, what exactly is Magic Leap making?

Unlike virtual reality products like Facebook’s forthcoming Oculus Rift, the company doesn’t create a 3D world for you inside of a headset that a consumer must wear.

And Abovitz also describes it as “very different” from what people call augmented reality like Google Glass or Microsoft’s HoloLens, in which digital images are overlayed on real world scenery. Although Microsoft hasn’t revealed exactly how its holographic goggles will work, either, Magic Leap describes its technology as projecting digital light fields onto your retina, helping your eyes and brain see things that look like they’re part of the real world.

Source:

http://www.businessinsider.com/magic-leap-rony-abovitz-interview-on-793-million-fundraise-at-45-billion-valuation-2016-2

Gogoro: More than the Tesla of scooters

The Gogoro Smartscooter is refined, stylish and edgy, like the love child of an iPhone and a Vespa with the detail-oriented hallmarks of a European luxury car. A vehicle for the digital age, the Smartscooter is easily customized through your smartphone — from the color of your dash panel to how much power the engine delivers.

It’s these little details that get Horace Luke the most excited. Co-founder and CEO of Gogoro, Luke played a pivotal role in Gogoro’s July launch of the futuristic Smartscooter.

“On motorcycles, fuses are so randomly placed. I can’t tolerate that. So for us, all the fuses are all together,” he says.

Designed and manufactured entirely in-house by Gogoro in Taipei, Taiwan, every detail aims to deliver a particular, exacting experience. The effect invites comparisons to Elon Musk’s Tesla, which has made electric cars as desirable as any luxury car. But the Smartscooter packs hidden power that could surpass even Tesla and may shift thinking on how electric vehicles should fit into high-density urban environments. Gogoro isn’t just selling scooters; it’s selling a swappable battery service.

This is a very new concept, and not even industry observers are sure it will work. Ryan Citron, research analyst from Navigant Research, thinks Gogoro is starting in the right part of the world to make this work — “all the highest sales and highest growth rates [for electric scooters] are expected in that region” — but he notes car battery swap startup Better Place failed miserably.

“This is quite different however. There are much lower costs for electric scooter batteries versus a car battery,” says Citron. “Is it going to be like an iPhone or an iPod kind of reaction there? A lot of companies think that with their products. Which ones can actually do that? I’m not sure.”

Source:

http://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/gogoro-scooters/

Project Skybender: Google’s secretive 5G internet drone tests revealed

Trials at New Mexico’s Spaceport Authority are using new millimetre wave technology to deliver data from drones – potentially 40 times faster than 4G.

Google is testing solar-powered drones at Spaceport America in New Mexico to explore ways to deliver high-speed internet from the air, the Guardian has learned.

In a secretive project codenamed SkyBender, the technology giant built several prototype transceivers at the isolated spaceport last summer.

SkyBender is using drones to experiment with millimetre-wave radio transmissions, one of the technologies that could underpin next generation 5Gwireless internet access. High frequency millimetre waves can theoretically transmit gigabits of data every second, up to 40 times more than today’s 4G LTE systems. Google ultimately envisages thousands of high altitude “self-flying aircraft” delivering internet access around the world.

“The huge advantage of millimetre wave is access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded. It’s packed and there’s nowhere else to go,” says Jacques Rudell, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle and specialist in this technology.

However, millimetre wave transmissions have a much shorter range than mobile phone signals. A broadcast at 28GHz, the frequency Google is testing at Spaceport America, would fade out in around a tenth the distance of a 4G phone signal. To get millimetre wave working from a high-flying drone, Google needs to experiment with focused transmissions from a so-called phased array. “This is very difficult, very complex and burns a lot of power,” Rudell says.

Google is not the first organisation to work with drones and millimetre wave technology. In 2014, Darpa, the research arm of the US military, announced a program called Mobile Hotspots to make a fleet of drones that could provide one gigabit per second communications for troops operating in remote areas.

Source:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jan/29/project-skybender-google-drone-tests-internet-spaceport-virgin-galactic?CMP=twt_a-technology_b-gdntech

The world’s first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily

The Japanese lettuce production company Spread believes the farmers of the future will be robots.

So much so that Spread is creating the world’s first farm manned entirely by robots. Instead of relying on human farmers, the indoor Vegetable Factory will employ robots that can harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce every day.

Don’t expect a bunch of humanoid robots to roam the halls, however; the robots look more like conveyor belts with arms. They’ll plant seeds, water plants, and trim lettuce heads after harvest in the Kyoto, Japan farm.

“The use of machines and technology has been improving agriculture in this way throughout human history,” J.J. Price, a spokesperson at Spread, tells Tech Insider. “With the introduction of plant factories and their controlled environment, we are now able to provide the ideal environment for the crops.”

Source:

http://www.techinsider.io/spreads-robot-farm-will-open-soon-2016-1?utm_content=buffere1d67&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer-ti