In June, ARPost introduced readers to IMMY, a revolutionary company under revolutionary founder Doug Magyari. Unfortunately, we recently received news that IMMY has entered Article 9 Foreclosure and is auctioning off assets including patents and equipment.
The IMMY Vision
One of the largest barriers to adoption and obstacles to use in the VR industry comes from VR motion sickness. The condition doesn’t seem to impact everybody, but it can be a problem for some users who wish to play or work in VR for extended periods.
Magyari believes that this is caused because lenses are unable to represent 3D content. His solution was to construct a headset using mirrors instead.
“Getting a headset to see how we see the real world using lenses is a dead-end,” Magyari said in our June phone interview. “The only lens involved when you wear an IMMY is your own eye.”
His company, IMMY, had been in business since 2003 and using mirrors since 2009. However, it had only worked with the military and was preparing to roll out a consumer model by the end of this year.
The model to be released was to be a $500 USB-compatible headset with a 62-degree FoV, primarily intended for watching immersive videos. Unfortunately, it now looks as though it might be a bit longer of a wait.
Details About the Auction
An email circulated on October 2 announced that IMMY had entered “Article 9 Foreclosure” and would be auctioning off assets.
An auction was originally scheduled for October 9 through October 13 to include both bulk and “piecemeal” auctions of patents involved in the headset’s production as well as physical equipment. However, the auction has since been postponed. The new date and the reason for the postponement were not included in the announcement.
Previews are available by appointment with physical assets located in Reno, Nevada.
Many of the details about how the headset was intended to actually work were also set out in two publicly available whitepapers published by Magyari.
What Comes Next?
Magyari could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.
While this could be seen as a setback for IMMY, and arguably XR technology in general, it isn’t necessarily the end of the road for this innovative company or the technology that it promises. Those who have followed the XR technology industry for very long have seen companies come and go, and other companies go away only to come back stronger.
In talking with Magyari, it was difficult not to get caught up in the promise of this technology. It seems only natural that this situation is a point of transition rather than the death of the concept.
We can also be optimistic because, while mirror-based headset designs aren’t common, Magyari wasn’t the only one following that idea. It is also being used in a potential future generation of AR headsets.
