Top all-time · #809
Karl Guttag
Personal blog · kguttag.comhardwarebusiness
Karl Guttag writes KGOnTech, a personal blog at kguttag.com about hardware and business. Since 2012, 80 different Hacker News readers have linked it 163 times, most often “Magic Leap – Separating Magic and Reality”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-23, and you can follow it by feed.
Sometimes recommended · 15 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this blog as the go-to analysis of AR/VR optics and display hardware, especially for debunking Magic Leap hype and checking claims about Vision Pro and other headsets.
- Recommended for · 15 comments
- Called 'exceptionally well researched and explained', 'a good read', and 'very good at parsing marketing hype vs reality'.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Karl Guttag On Technology
Most-linked posts?
- Magic Leap – Separating Magic and Reality4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2016-11-28
- /3 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2021-10-12
- Magic Leap Review Part I3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-09-27
- Analyzing Apple Glass Leak and Asking the Right Questions3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-07-01
- Spreadsheet "breaks" Apple Vision Pro eye-tracking3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-02-07
- Magic Leap Livestream 02 Gives Up Some Clues3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-06-12
- Tilt-5 Was Magical3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-11-20
- All Magic Leap Patents Have Been Assigned to J.P. Chase Morgan as Collateral3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-11-11
- Analysis of Magic Leap 2 at SPIE AR/VR/Mr 20223 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-02-01
- Apple Vision Pro – Hardware Issues3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-06-16
What Hacker News says?
Has anyone posted a deep dive yet on pinning down which exact waveguide design is being used and which exact projector (based on past papers, M&A activity, key hires, etc.)? I'm surprised Karl Guttag hasn't published anything yet about either Orion or Spectacles 24. https://kguttag.com/ His blog is normally the definitive source for reverse-engineering AR optics systems from public information. Maybe someone posted…
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on “Orion, our first true augmented reality glasses”Submitted Humane AI – Pico Laser Projection – AI Twist on an Old Scam (2023) as a story · 260 points
HN discussionCounterpoint: http://www.kguttag.com
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on “Magic Leap One”Submitted Analysis of Magic Leap 2 at SPIE AR/VR/Mr 2022 as a story · 250 points
HN discussionSeems like it would be less than that though? Depends on your typical FOV to your monitor. If the headset manages to be 4000 pixels wide, but that is filling say 110 degree FOV, then if your virtual display is 44 degree FOV, it's only going to be represented by about 1600 pixels wide. 4000/(110/44) = 1600. I wish we knew what the actual resolution of this headset is and what the FOV is. They say it's 23 MP total, so…
Comment linking /2023/08/05/apple-vision-pro-part-5a-why-monitor-replacement-is-ridiculous/
on “Apple Vision Pro review”Submitted All Magic Leap Patents Have Been Assigned to J.P. Chase Morgan as Collateral as a story · 210 points
HN discussionThe Magic Leap was around 30 pixels per degree when it was still sold. https://kguttag.com/2022/01/31/magic-leap-2-at-spie-ar-vr-mr...
Comment linking /2022/01/31/magic-leap-2-at-spie-ar-vr-mr-2022/
on “Meta Ray-Ban Display”Submitted Magic Leap One Video – Diffractive Waveguides Confirmed as a story · 174 points
HN discussionMobile screens are the present, in the form of phones. Unfortunately there are fundamental physics problems that make AR too limited and too cumbersome to entirely replace screens for the foreseeable future. I highly recommend Karl Guttag's blog to learn about the problems that will hold back AR for a long, long time: https://kguttag.com/2023/06/03/slides-from-presentation-at-a...
Comment linking /2023/06/03/slides-from-presentation-at-awe-2023-on-optical-versus-passthrough-mr/
on “Dynamicland 2024”Submitted Magic Leap Review Part I as a story · 166 points
HN discussionWow, they burned billions. Karl Guttag has blogged about them for years, debunking their technology. Hi blog is a good read for all things in the AR/VR space https://www.kguttag.com/
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on “Magic Leap reportedly slashes jobs and steps away from consumer plans”Submitted Avegant “Light Field” Display as a story · 159 points
HN discussionHaha ... or more than a million!! One thing I like about CES are the frank conversations with engineers. This year, I reached out to a few people. Had a very nice conversation with Karl Guttag (he has an optics blog http://www.kguttag.com/ ). I'm a newb in this area but had burning questions for a while .. he very patiently explained optics 101 and some of the implications. Very nice guy in person. I also spoke to/s…
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on “CES Was Full of Useless Robots and Machines That Don’t Work”Submitted Tilt-5 Was Magical as a story · 153 points
HN discussionFor analysis of new AR/VR technology I highly recommend Karl Guttag's blog: https://www.kguttag.com/ He's an engineer that understands the limitations of physics, especially when it comes to optics and light. He is very good a parsing marketing hype vs reality. (He called BS on Magic Leap years before it launched.) His posts are exceptionally well researched and explained, even if you don't have a background in phys…
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on “Holographic optics for thin and lightweight virtual reality”Submitted Spreadsheet "breaks" Apple Vision Pro eye-tracking as a story · 146 points
HN discussionThis article does a good job: https://www.kguttag.com/2019/12/18/hololens-2-not-a-pretty-p... Digilens is a company that's been around for 15 years doing all kinds of eye wear stuff.
Comment linking /2019/12/18/hololens-2-not-a-pretty-picture/
on “Holographic optics for thin and lightweight virtual reality”Submitted Magic Leap – Separating Magic and Reality as a story · 128 points
HN discussionThat will take a while. AR isn't going to get big unless Facebook recruits other firms to make investments in content. Those investments are going to happen until a decent AR dev kit exists, but for now very expensive $2500 headsets are not good enough in terms of * image quality * brightness * size * drop a pair on anybody right now for a demo https://kguttag.com/ points out the problems are difficult; industry bad…
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on “Facebook plans to change its name as part of company rebrand”Submitted Meta RayBan AR glasses shows Lumus waveguide structures in leaked video as a story · 115 points
HN discussionFiber scan display in hi res would’ve required moving at 14× speed of sound: https://www.kguttag.com/2018/01/06/magic-leap-fiber-scanning...
Comment linking /2018/01/06/magic-leap-fiber-scanning-display-fsd-the-big-con-at-the-core/
on “Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses”Submitted Modeling the Magic Leap One Experience as a story · 114 points
HN discussionKarl Guttag estimated in the same range last month: https://www.kguttag.com/2019/11/10/all-magic-leap-patents-ha... His whole blog is a pretty compelling read on the current and near future state of AR.
Comment linking /2019/11/10/all-magic-leap-patents-have-apparently-been-assigned-to-j-p-chase-morgan-as-collateral/
on “Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses”Submitted Eyeway's Retina-Tracking Foveated Display as a story · 111 points
HN discussionhttps://www.kguttag.com/2018/07/04/joining-ravn-as-chief-sci...
Comment linking /2018/07/04/joining-ravn-as-chief-science-officer/
on “Magic Leap One Teardown”Submitted Magic Leap: When Reality Hits the Fan as a story · 109 points
HN discussionJust as an FYI, Karl posted an update referencing the iFixit teardown today: https://www.kguttag.com/2018/08/23/ifixits-magic-leap-one-te... For more technical information about the Magic Leap rendering stack and their dual-focal plane approach, here's the deck from a SIGGRAPH talk: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h36TJRkK4KteRUVcoXAnbHzTFfu...
Comment linking /2018/08/23/ifixits-magic-leap-one-teardown-confirms-kgontechs-analysis-from-november-2016/
on “Magic Leap One Teardown”Submitted Magic Leap House of Cards – FSD, Waveguides, and Focus Planes as a story · 100 points
HN discussionOne big takeaway is the confirmation that ML-1 is using focus plane sequential LCOS SLM with waveguide optics. Perennial Magic Leap critic KGonTech correctly called this in 2016[0] based on Magic Leap patents. [0] - https://www.kguttag.com/2016/11/20/magic-leap-separating-mag...
Comment linking /2016/11/20/magic-leap-separating-magic-and-reality/
on “Magic Leap One Teardown”Submitted Canon R5 Mk Ii Drops Pixel Shift High Res – Is Canon Missing the AI Big Picture? as a story · 85 points
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