The current implementations of augmented reality (AR) on mobile devices is not that hot. Smartphones can be used to create windows into fantasy overlaid over reality, but the technology to do it isn’t quite up to par with the science fiction level of hype that the future may hold. Thanks to Magic Leap Inc., a start-up specializing in augmented reality that is financed by Google, we might now have a glimpse of where AR could go.

Magic Leap’s demo packs a lot into one minute thirty-six seconds (video).

The video starts off showing off the staid, office-future of AR: some context menus floating in the air, a YouTube cat video pinned next to a laptop screen, a Gmail interface ticking like a rolodex…

Then things actually get interesting when the actor opens up a floating menu and opens up a video game: an augmented reality shooter featuring Dr. Gordbort’s science fiction ray guns (a product line from WETA Workshop seen in Valve Corporation’s Team Fortress 2 shooter game.) This opens up a Jules Verne-esque onslaught of steampunk robots that need to be repelled before they destroy the office.

Needless to say: this presentation is entirely cinematic and pre-rendered. Modern day AR systems, while fairly amazing, do not have this level of fidelity or competence when it comes to tracking objects in an environment, casting shadows, or generally taking over field of view. That said, some of the things that we’ve seen may not be that many years behind.

Magic Leap has been on the forefront of attempting to push the augmented reality envelope and has recently received $542 million from Google to do so.

Other projects of note in the AR space include Aurasma, an advertising system that integrates with mobile devices to make objects and items “come to life.” Not quite the level of a no-holds-barred shooter played out in an empty office, but it has a charm all its own.

Then there’s also Google’s Ingress, a massively multiplayer social AR game that takes players, and their smartphones, out in the real world to interact with geo-positioned portals and nodes fixed in public spaces. Today Ingress’s Google+ page has 3.4 million followers up from May 2014 when it exceeded 1.6 million followers.

And, for the bleeding-edge-of-hype, there’s Microsoft’s recently teased HoloLens project, which is not even on the market yet but would likely be the closest thing capable of delivering anything close to Magic Leap’s demo.

Image credit: Magic Leap, WETA Workship, “Just another day at the office” screenshot