Augmented Reality Company Mira Opens Pre-Order for Prism, a Headset That Will Deliver Premium & Shareable AR Experiences to the Masses
Mira, a mobile augmented reality company whose mission is to enhance the way humans interact with each other and their technology, today unveiled Prism, a minimalist, untethered AR headset that works seamlessly with the iPhone. Mira’s Prism headset is available for pre-order now at mirareality.com for $99 and will ship to developers this fall, with consumer shipments coming in time for the holidays. Mira additionally announced $1.5 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital, Troy Capital Partners, S-Cubed Capital, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, global music artist and tech investor will.i.am, Jaunt VR founder Jens Christensen and more. The funding will be used to fuel manufacturing of the Prism headset, the development of a robust software toolkit, and the creation of consumer facing content.
Mira’s Prism headset and accompanying remote were created to work with existing iPhones for a premium augmented reality experience at a fraction of the price. Users simply open an app on their iPhone, slide the phone into the Prism headset and begin exploring the wonders of interactive holographic content. Prism’s clear lenses enable users to remain present, setting the Mira experience apart from the isolation inherent in virtual reality.
With the power of Mira, multiple headset users can share an experience together, and anyone with an iOS device (iPad or iPhone) can use Mira’s Spectator Mode to join into the experience in real time, enabling collaborative exploration in augmented reality. Through Spectator Mode, users can also record video or capture photos of their friends’ experience and easily share via social media. This shared interaction is Mira’s first step toward connecting everyone in the augmented world.
Mira has partnered with select immersive content studios to create an initial suite of compelling interactive AR experiences for developers to learn from and consumers to play, all included when the Prism headset ships. Experiences range from solo challenges to multiplayer games, including mind-bending mixed-reality puzzles, holographic chess and digital warship battles, which make gaming in AR as dynamic as it is social. The remote tracks acceleration and rotation and enhances the AR experiences with a touchpad, trigger, and two buttons and can be used as a fishing rod, laser pointer, paintbrush, steering wheel, and magic wand. The opportunities enabled by the headset and remote are truly endless.
“As developers, we wanted a way to build and experiment in AR without the need for expensive equipment, and as AR enthusiasts, we wanted the opportunity to play and explore without limits. We challenged ourselves to build a mobile headset that would make AR accessible to anyone,” said Ben Taft, co-founder and CEO of Mira. “Prism is a bridge between the physical and digital worlds and Mira is creating the thread that lets people connect and share experiences.”
Powered by the Unity 3D game engine, Mira’s software developer kit (SDK) will be available for download, enabling creators to develop unique experiences or re-tool existing assets for use on the Prism headset. Interested developers can create sophisticated, multiplayer experiences that extend interactions beyond the screen and can easily publish their work to a mass market reaching millions of mobile users.
Mira was founded by Ben Taft, Matt Stern, and Montana Reed who met in the inaugural class of the University of Southern California’s Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation.
About Mira
Mira is a mobile augmented reality company that makes premium AR experiences available to everyone. Its Prism headset allows users to discover and share engaging AR content, and its software development kit makes it easy for creators to develop new and unique augmented experiences. Until now the entire digital world has been constrained to screens; Mira’s untethered Prism headset removes those boundaries by digitally imposing holographics into the physical world. Founded by Ben Taft, Matt Stern, and Montana Reed, Mira is backed by seed investors Sequoia Capital, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, will.i.am, Jens Christensen and more. Mira is based in Los Angeles, California.
