News: Magic Leap Adds New Multi-User & Sharing Features, Improves Hand Tracking in Latest Lumin OS Update

Magic Leap Adds New Multi-User & Sharing Features, Improves Hand Tracking in Latest Lumin OS Update

After showing off a prototype of the Grordbattle multiplayer first-person shooter at the Game Developer Conference, Magic Leap has added a new Shared World feature in version 0.95.0 of the Lumin OS update released this week.

Shared World, which is still an experimental beta feature, gives users the ability to opt into a shared spatial map created by Magic Leap One devices in a common area and syncs their positions, which facilitates multi-user AR experiences.

Shared World could make it possible for developers to create AR experiences like Spatiate. Image by Spatiate/YouTube

In addition to Shared World, Lumin gained two other sharing features in beta. Kiosk Mode enables device owners to lock the device to one app for guest usage, a feature that will come in handy for the upcoming Game of Thrones experience and demos at AT&T stores.

And then there's Device Stream, which enables users to see their live spatial computing feed on mobile devices via the Magic Leap mobile app.

While Shared World focuses on multiplayer experiences between Magic Leap One users, Kiosk Mode and Device Stream facilitate the demonstration of Magic Leap's device to those who don't own one.

Elsewhere within the Lumin update, Magic Leap has also improved hand tracking, head pose, and eye tracking. The hand tracking improvements are particularly intriguing in the face of the leap forward in gesture recognition capabilities demonstrated with the HoloLens 2 launch.

Now, the Magic Leap One can track eight key poses from different orientations, such as palm facing the user. In addition, hand tracking can recognize gestures without key poses.

Lumin 0.95.0 also brings a number of other new features and quality-of-life improvements detailed in the release notes, but the sharing features and tracking improvements are the real stand outs.

It's becoming increasingly clear that Magic Leap is working to establish its own particular flavor of the "AR cloud," aka the Magicverse, while simultaneously making it easier for the unconverted to experience Magic Leap and fending off Microsoft's own advancements in AR hardware. It will be interesting to see what other software-side improvements the company pumps out as it preps its own next-generation, mainstream consumer-focused device.

Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for TV, Messages, News, and Shortcuts, as well as important bug fixes and security patches. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.6 update.

Cover image via Magic Leap/YouTube

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