Qualcomm Q&A with Magic Leap: How connectivity can help transform enterprise AR

In September 2022, Magic Leap announced the commercial availability of its next generation enterprise augmented reality (AR) platform, Magic Leap 2. Magic Leap 2 showcases a series of important features and innovations that set it apart, including a large field of view, proprietary optics, and advanced wireless connectivity tech delivered via the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 system. We recently sat down with Jason Gholston, Sr. Director, Ecosystem and Developer Programs at Magic Leap, Inc., to learn more about how wireless connectivity plays a key role in Magic Leap 2.

In general, how do you think about the role wireless connectivity plays in the immersive/engaging experiences delivered by Magic Leap 2?

It's really difficult to have one without the other. Without the robust Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity built into Magic Leap 2, digital twins, live-video remote assistance, and access to mission-critical real-time data would not be possible. Wireless connectivity also enables Magic Leap 2 to leverage an ecosystem of Android™-compatible Bluetooth devices like game controllers, keyboards, mice, barcode scanners, earbuds, and more. These devices can expand the capabilities of Magic Leap 2. To help developers get started, we recently published a Bluetooth device integration guide. In just a few steps, developers can connect their apps to these devices.

How is Magic Leap thinking about how the AR market is evolving — and how does that thinking guide the decision-making in the development of Magic Leap 2?

Magic Leap sees the evolution of AR to be critical for realizing and accelerating the digital transformation of enterprise. Magic Leap 2 delivers a cutting-edge, immersive AR experience that professionals would find easy to use and be eager to adopt. The device is built upon Android Open Source Project, so it's open, secure, and easy to manage with off-the-shelf master data management systems — all key factors to ease enterprise deployments.

As AR becomes truly untethered, what impact do you see next-gen wireless tech having on the application of AR, and the AR experience itself?

Next-gen wireless connections with higher bandwidth, lower latency, and expansive areas of coverage will enable AR to approach its full potential. Remote rendering connected by next-gen Wi-Fi will allow AR to achieve new levels of graphical fidelity and immersion. For instance, digital twins will no longer be limited in their detail by the onboard rendering capacity of the device. And next-gen wireless connectivity could also enable new, extremely light, hardware form factors that could further decouple a system’s compute from its AR headset, and remove any supporting cables. 

When you look at Magic Leap 2, what use cases do you believe can really put AR in the mainstream today?

Within enterprise, solutions for three-dimensional data visualization, guided work, remote assistance, immersive training, and virtual collaboration are becoming indispensable tools for teams of all kinds and across industries. These applications can make people feel like they just got super powers: learn complex procedures faster, see through walls, access vital info at the place and time it’s most relevant and useful. These enhancements help users get more done, and they can do it quicker and with fewer errors. In the case of one company, PBC Linear, by using Taqtile's Manifest on Magic Leap devices, training times for new employees were reduced by 80% and thousands of dollars were saved in reduced material waste and downtime. They also found, and perhaps even more importantly, that employee retention improved as a result of the program.

From Magic Leap’s perspective, what does the future of AR look like in the next three years?

We expect continued adoption of AR in enterprise settings. As solutions expand, and high-quality wireless connectivity becomes ubiquitous, AR will be a common sight in enterprises that wish to find new efficiencies and empower their teams to do their best work. As location-based entertainment, education, communication, digital assistants, and metaverse applications migrate to immersive AR, we'll see these use cases and the devices that power them become a part of people's day-to-day lives outside of work.