谷歌重金投資Magic Leap 搶灘虛擬現實技術

If Google has its way, hammerhead sharks will swim through your office, elephants will fit in the palm of your hand and dragons will fly among the birds.

如果事情遂了谷歌(Google)的心願，那麼雙髻鯊就可以在你的辦公室裏遊動，大象可以站在你的手心裏，龍也會和羣鳥一起飛翔。

These fanciful visions are being dreamed up by Magic Leap, a start-up making augmented-reality technology. On Tuesday, it landed Google as its biggest investor.

這些奇幻景象，是增強現實技術領域的初創企業Magic Leap的一些設想。本週二，谷歌成了該公司的最大投資者。

Valuing Magic Leap at about $2 billion, the $542 million cash infusion from Google and other investors immediately vaulted the shadowy start-up into the upper echelons of young technology companies.

Magic Leap以20億美元左右（約合120億元人民幣）的估值，從谷歌和其他投資者那裏籌集到5.42億美元的現金，立刻讓這個默默無聞的初創公司躋身於年輕技術公司中佼佼者的行列。

But as is so often the case with tech start-ups, Magic Leap’s soaring valuation is based on little more than an ambitious vision and some nascent code. Magic Leap, which is based far from Silicon Valley in the suburbs of Miami, has no revenue — and no products currently on the market.

但是，Magic Leap估值的飆升，基本上就是依託於一個雄心勃勃的願景和一些尚未成熟的代碼，除此之外別無他物。在科技產業的初創公司裏，這樣的情況也很常見。Magic Leap遠離硅谷，坐落在邁阿密郊區，沒有營收——而且也沒有已經面世的產品。

“Until we see the device, you have to be a little skeptical,” said Brian Blau, an analyst at Gartner who has worked with virtual reality for two decades.

“在看到設備之前，肯定會有點懷疑，”高德納(Gartner)的分析師布萊恩·布勞(Brian Blau)說，他在虛擬現實領域有20年的經驗。

Details about Magic Leap’s plans remain sketchy. The company declined requests for an interview on Tuesday. On its website, the company has a few videos and images that depict rich animations displayed over what people see with the naked eye. Seahorses float above children in a schoolroom. A yellow submarine hovers near an outdoor promenade. An astronaut walks through a train station.

Magic Leap制定的計劃，在細節上仍然很粗略。本週二，該公司拒絕了採訪請求。Magic Leap的官方網站上，有幾個視頻和圖片，內容是人們可用裸眼看到的豐富動畫：教室裏，海馬漂浮在孩子們的頭上；戶外的步行街附近，一艘黃色潛水艇在盤旋；火車站裏，一名宇航員在行走。

So-called augmented reality technology already exists, but remains primitive. Google itself has gone further than any other company to bring this concept to market with Google Glass, its interactive spectacles.

業界所說的“增強現實”(augmented reality)技術其實已經存在，只是仍然處於原始階段。在把這個概念推向市場的過程中，谷歌本身就走在了其他所有公司前面，它推出了交互式設備谷歌眼鏡(Google Glass)。

But Magic Leap appears to have significantly broader aims, describing an ambitious vision for displaying rich interactive graphics alongside what people see naturally, using what it calls a dynamic digitized lightfield signal.

但Magic Leap的目標似乎要寬泛得多，它勾勒了一個雄心勃勃的願景：使用它所說的“動態數字化光場信號”技術，把豐富的交互式圖形，和人們本來就可以看到的東西一併展示出來。

“Current technologies we use to access the digital world limit, or even take us away, from the real world,” Magic Leap’s website reads.

“我們目前使用的走向數字世界的技術，會限制我們與現實世界的接觸，甚至讓我們脫離現實世界，”Magic Leap的網站上寫道。

Google’s role as the lead investor is significant as it jockeys for position in a rapidly shifting technology industry.

谷歌牽頭進行的這輪投資有重要的意義，因爲它正在一個快速變化的科技行業中搶佔灘頭。

Just seven months ago, Facebook stunned Silicon Valley with the $2 billion acquisition of Oculus, a virtual reality company. Though the social network’s interest in the maker of a virtual reality headset was a surprise to many, Facebook believes Oculus can be a new sort of operating system as people continue to find new ways to interact with computers.

就在七個月前，Facebook斥資20億美元收購了虛擬現實技術公司Oculus，震驚了硅谷。雖然Facebook對於這個虛擬現實頭戴設備製造商的興趣，出乎很多人的意料，但Facebook認爲，在人們不斷尋找新的方法來與計算機交互的時候，Oculus可以成爲一種新的操作系統。

Google views Magic Leap in much the same way, according to people briefed on the company’s thinking. As people become more comfortable with wearable technology, technologies like Magic Leap are likely to become more commonplace.“Magic Leap is going beyond the current perception of mobile computing, augmented reality and virtual reality,” Magic Leap’s founder and chief executive, Rony Abovitz, said in a statement. “We are transcending all three, and will revolutionize the way people communicate, purchase, learn, share and play.”

谷歌對Magic Leap的看法也大致相同，一些瞭解該公司思路的人透露。隨着人們越來越習慣可穿戴技術，像Magic Leap這樣的技術就會變得更加普遍。“Magic Leap超越了人們目前對移動計算、增強現實和虛擬現實的看法，”Magic Leap創始人兼首席執行官羅尼·阿伯維茨(Rony Abovitz)在一份聲明中說。“我們正在這三個方面進行超越，這將會徹底改變人們的溝通、購物、學習、分享和玩遊戲的方式。”

Bing Gordon, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, another investor in Magic Leap, said that augmented reality could become a new platform — one that he argued could outstrip mobile devices in popularity. He compared the potential advancements to the rise of cinema: a new way of seeing the world. In this case, the start-up’s technology allows highly realistic graphics to appear alongside real-life objects.

凱鵬華盈(KPCB)是Magic Leap的另一位投資者，該公司合夥人賓·戈登(Bing Gordon)說，增強現實將成爲一個新的平臺，他認爲，這種平臺的人氣有可能超越移動設備。戈登把增強現實的潛在影響和電影院的興起相提並論，認爲它們都提供了一種看世界的新方式。在Magic Leap的例子中，該公司是用技術，讓極爲逼真的圖形和現實生活中的物體一起出現。

The difference, according to Mr. Gordon, is that Magic Leap is better coordinated with how the human eye and brain process images, making the computer graphics feel, and move, more naturally.

不同之處在於，戈登說，Magic Leap能更好地協調人眼和大腦處理圖像的方式，讓電腦圖形的運動更自然，看起來也更自然。

Augmented reality could obviously be used to enhance video games, something that Mr. Gordon, as a former executive of the game company Electronic Arts, is familiar with. But he argued that the technology could be applied to an array of other applications, creating a real-life equivalent to the magical newspaper from the “Harry Potter” books.

很顯然，增強現實技術可以用於改善電子遊戲，戈登曾是遊戲公司藝電(Electronic Arts)的高管，對這個領域很熟悉。但他認爲，這項技術還可以有其他一系列用途，比如創造出《哈利·波特》(Harry Potter)小說中那種魔法報紙似的東西。

“For a while, we thought it was technically impossible, and then financially impossible,” he said. “Now it’s technically and financially possible.”

“有一段時間，我們認爲這在技術上不可能辦到，因此在經濟上也是一條死路，”他說。“現在它在技術和經濟上都是可能的。”

With more than $60 billion in the bank, Google cannot seem to find enough ways to invest its money. Google Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm, has invested in diverse companies including Blue Bottle Coffee and Uber, the on-demand taxi service.

谷歌有超過600億美元的現金，多到似乎找不到足夠多的方法來投資手裏的錢。谷歌風投(Google Ventures)是谷歌的風險投資部門，負責把資金投給各種公司，包括藍瓶咖啡(Blue Bottle Coffee)和按需租車服務Uber。

Google X, the company’s research division, is the hatchery for all kinds of “moonshots” including self-driving cars, a drone-based delivery service called Project Wing and, perhaps most notably, Google Glass.

谷歌的研究部門Google X負責孵化各種奇思妙想，比如無人駕駛汽車、無人機配送服務Project Wing，其中最引人矚目的也許就是谷歌眼鏡。

The tech giant has spent much of the last two years trying to gain entry to essentially everything with an Internet connection, through projects including the Open Automotive Alliance, intended to bring its Android operating system to cars, and its acquisition of Nest, a maker of Internet-connected thermostats and smoke alarms.

在過去兩年中，這個科技巨頭花了很多時間，要讓幾乎各種東西都連接到互聯網上，它開展的項目包括“開放汽車聯盟”(Open Automotive Alliance)，目的是將其Android操作系統搭載到汽車上，它還收購了聯網溫控器和煙霧報警器製造商Nest。

But the investment in Magic Leap comes from Google Inc., not one of its investment arms. This suggests that it is less concerned with the near-term business prospects of augmented reality than in forging a long-term strategic relationship with Magic Leap. Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president for Android, Chrome and apps, will join the Magic Leap board.

但Magic Leap獲得的投資來自谷歌總公司，而不是它旗下的投資部門。這表明，谷歌不太關心的增強現實的短期業務前景，而是更重視與Magic Leap形成長期的戰略合作關係。谷歌負責Android、Chrome和應用業務的高級副總裁桑達爾·皮查伊(Sundar Pichai)將加入Magic Leap董事會。

The investment represents a huge bet by Google and its consortium of investors. But such wagers are quickly becoming the norm for the likes of Google and Facebook, two companies not content to rest on their already hugely profitable existing business models.

在這輪融資中，谷歌和其他投資者押下了一個巨大的賭注。但對於谷歌和Facebook這樣的公司來說，這樣的賭注正迅速成爲常態；谷歌和Facebook都不滿足於自身已經利潤豐厚的現有業務模式。

“They’re willing to take risks on the belief that their business will not be around forever,” Mr. Gordon said. “The great tech C.E.O.s are all simultaneously maxing out their current model while also looking around at future models and placing big bets.”

“它們願意承擔風險，因爲它們相信，自己的業務模式不可能一直不變，”戈登說。“傑出的技術公司CEO都在一邊儘可能地靠現有模式取得更多收益，一邊四處尋找未來的模式，並且押下大筆賭注。”

Other investors in Series B, or the second major financing round, include Qualcomm Ventures, Legendary Entertainment, the private equity firm KKR, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz and Obvious Ventures.

這次是Magic Leap的第二輪重大融資，其他投資者包括高通風險投資公司(Qualcomm Ventures)、傳奇娛樂公司(Legendary Entertainment)、私募股權公司KKR、火神資本(Vulcan Capital)、凱鵬華盈、安德森·霍洛維茨(Andreessen Horowitz)，以及Obvious Ventures。

The group, a consortium of some of the biggest names in venture capital and private equity, are all betting big money on “an eclectic group of visionaries, rocket scientists, wizards and gurus from the fields of film, robotics, visualization, software, computing and user experience,” as Magic Leap describes itself on its website.

風險投資和私募股權界的一些大牌匯聚一堂，押下大筆資金，支持一羣“不拘一格的空想家、火箭科學家、巫師，以及電影、機器人、可視化、軟件、計算機和用戶體驗領域的大師”，Magic Leap在自己的網站上寫道。

So far, however, augmented reality and virtual reality have remained more the stuff of science fiction than of the everyday Internet.

但是迄今爲止，增強現實和虛擬現實仍然更多地出現在科幻小說中，而不是我們日常使用的互聯網上。

Google’s Glass, which essentially places a tiny computer screen on an eyeglass lens, is available for $1,500 in “open beta,” a public test of the device. Oculus does not have a product ready for buyers yet.

谷歌眼鏡實際上是在眼鏡片上放置了一個微小的電腦屏幕，它的“公測版”售價爲1500美元，Oculus公司還沒有推出任何可供購買的產品。

And even if Magic Leap or Oculus does create a compelling new computing platform, the next challenge will be convincing media and tech companies to create lots of content to keep users entertained.

即使Magic Leap和Oculus確實創造了一個富有吸引力的新計算平臺，它們還會面臨下一個挑戰，即說服媒體和科技企業提供大量內容來取悅用戶。

“Virtual reality has been around for 20 years, and the one thing that has been consistent throughout this is that the technology is not mature enough,” Mr. Blau said. “Today there’s the possibility for that to change, but it’s going to take a while for these app developers to get it right.”

“虛擬現實技術20年前就出現了，但一直以來不夠成熟，”布勞說。“如今，這種情況有可能會發生改變，但應用開發人員需要一段時間來改進它。”