ILMxLAB presents Star Wars: Project Porg for Magic Leap One

ILMxLAB, a division of Disney's Lucasfilm group dedicated to emerging platforms, presented its Star Wars: Project Porg project to Magic Leap L.E.A.P. conference. The demo I saw will be available as part of a larger free download of the augmented reality glasses Magic Leap One Creator Edition in December.

Vicki Dobbs Beck, leader of ILMxLAB and Michael Koperwas, ILMxLAB mixed reality supervisor, explained what was happening before me. Dobbs Beck pointed out that it was an interactive "experiment" and not a game.

"We really tried to bring an authentic Star Wars character to live in a world with us," Koperwas said in an interview with GamesBeat.

I had to wait a bit to get a correct lens that allowed me to see without glasses. But once I got it right, the porgs came to life.

The Star Wars C3PO droid became a hologram, evoking the little porgs that appeared in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. Anthony Daniels expressed C3PO in the experiment. While C3PO was wondering where the porgs were, one of the creatures peeked over a virtual object on the floor.

Through the Magic Leap glasses, I could see the animated porg, waddling style, on the carpet of the real world room. The porg was not perfectly placed. Sometimes it was like walking in the air. But the animation's ability to integrate with real life seemed quite realistic.

I used the remote in my hand to grab snacks and disperse them in the room. Both porgs began to pursue them. Then, the porgs started roaming everywhere – on the real world television cabinet, on the shelves, on the tables and on the floor.

"You can ask them to change channels on TV and they will watch it," Koperwas said.

In fact, the porgs watched a TV show with Chewbacca on it, and they became sleepy doing it.

Dobbs Beck pointed out that porgs could also interact with real world objects. One of them stood near a smart speaker and danced while the music was coming out of the real device. You can throw small balls at them. Sometimes they will pick them up. Sometimes they will not do it. For the most part, porgs did their own things, walking in the real world.

According to Dobbs Beck, ILMxLAB has been working with Magic Leap for four years. The idea was to create a relationship with the characters over time.

"You can imagine that when glasses become part of your daily life, characters can also be part of your daily life," she said.

The goal of the Magic Leap free download was to spark people's imagination. But this demo will not interact with devices in the real world. This part is just part of the demo of the Magic Leap event.

Paul Kavanagh, head of ILM animation, has contributed to the project in addition to the ILMxLAB team based in San Francisco, who has been working on virtual reality, AR and mixed reality projects since 2015. .

ILMxLAB has also worked on the hyper reality experience Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. And last month, ILMxLAB announced the release of Vader Immortal: a Star Wars VR series, in collaboration with Oculus, for the Oculus Quest VR headset. The team is also working as an exclusive producer of five original Disney experiences for The Void platform.

Yes, the porgs were incredibly cute.

C3PO jokingly concluded, "Let the porgs be with you."