US 2,015,205,126 · Filed 2014-11-27

Magic Leap's Patent for Beaming AR Images Straight Into Your Eye

Magic Leap invented a way to project virtual images directly into your eye using special mirrors and light technology. Instead of looking at a screen, you see digital objects layered over the real world, as if they're actually there in front of you.

Curated and verified by the IsItPatented Editorial team

The plain-English version

What it protects

The claim covers a hardware system that combines an image generator, a light-modulating device, and a substrate containing multiple angled mirrors or reflectors. What's protected here is the specific arrangement where different reflectors bounce light at different angles to display sequential frames of image data directly to the user's eye—essentially the core optical and mechanical architecture for delivering augmented or virtual reality visuals.

Why it matters

This patent is central to Magic Leap's core technology and business model. The company has raised billions in funding around the premise of creating practical AR glasses that overlay digital content on the real world. By patenting this particular optical design—using multiple reflectors to direct light at specific angles—Magic Leap created a defensible moat around how their devices actually work, preventing competitors from copying the same reflector-based approach to display generation.

Real-world use

When you put on Magic Leap glasses and see a digital character standing on your real kitchen table, that AR image is being projected into your eye through this patented reflector system, making the virtual object appear spatially grounded in physical space.

Original USPTO abstract

Configurations are disclosed for presenting virtual reality and augmented reality experiences to users. The system may comprise an image-generating source to provide one or more frames of image data in a time-sequential manner, a light modulator configured to transmit light associated with the one or more frames of image data, a substrate to direct image information to a user's eye, wherein the substrate houses a plurality of reflectors, a first reflector of the plurality of reflectors to reflect transmitted light associated with a first frame of image data at a first angle to the user's eye, and a second reflector to reflect transmitted light associated with a second frame of the image data at a second angle to the user's eye.

Patent details

Publication number: US 2,015,205,126
Filing date: 2014-11-27
Grant date: Application — not yet granted
Assignee: Magic Leap, Inc.
Inventor(s): SCHOWENGERDT BRIAN T.
CPC class: G02B27/017

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