“Two worlds sit at a crossroads,” said Tamir Berliner, co-founder and CEO of Sightful. “Laptops are the centerpiece of our daily working lives, but the technology has yet to evolve with the modern, work-from-anywhere, privacy matters, ‘road warrior’ kind of mentality.”
“Meanwhile,” Berliner continued, weaving a story which holds a trove of future-of-work potential, “augmented reality is full of real promise, but hasn’t found its daily use case. Thus, we are actually at the perfect moment for a significant paradigm shift in a device we all know and love, and Spacetop Early Access is the first step on that journey.”
Thus, this is a story about laptops, augmented reality (AR) and what could be next on our collective journey to a profound, yet perhaps a one-day-commonplace sort of change:
The Spacetop.
Presented as “the World’s First AR Laptop,” the Spacetop is designed for the ongoing “work-from-truly-anywhere” movement. Upon opening it (as one would any traditional laptop), users are met with a slim keyboard; one not totally unlike ones we attach to on-the-go tablets like Magic Keyboards for iPads, Pro Signature Keyboards for Microsoft Surfaces, and so on. But situated in the top-middle, right above its row of function keys, is essentially an open holder for glasses.
Then, upon retrieving and donning the glasses? Well, in Sightful’s words, “a wonderful, massive, private virtual workspace appears.”
Created by a team of more than 60 spatial computing experts (including veterans from Apple, Microsoft and Magic Leap), Spacetop represents next-gen personal computing in a form that situates AR seamlessly into users’ daily lives. When wearing the Spacetop NReal glasses (a.k.a. a play on the word “unreal”), a virtual canvas more than 100 inches wide that opens digitally before users’ very eyes.
With Spacetop, how users organize their space becomes less about undue desk clutter (and a tsunami of seemingly endless browser tabs left open) and more about a more focused AR overlay of their key, most-viewed applications right in the air in front of them, accessible at any moment. (All while users remain grounded and present in the real world.)
“No more buried tabs, no more small screen constraints and eye strains,” said Tomer Kahan, co-founder and COO of Sightful. “Instead, a user-friendly, highly customizable space for users to be their most creative and productive selves, no matter where they are – and in a super familiar laptop form factor.”
Spacetop operates just as intuitively (if not more so, as Sightful explains) as a regular laptop, but with a dramatically expanded AR experiences with no complicated hand gesture controls to learn and no external hardware or software required. Spacetop users carry with them a multi-monitor, the-future-is-here sort of setup that is as large as their work requires. Whether they’re sitting on a couch, at an airport, in an RV on a remote location, in a bustling office or while working over a piping-hot breakfast at a local café, the Spacetop’s work environment supports simplified productivity without the need to lug around bulky computer equipment and accessories, and without the need to put up privacy screen filters or deal with wandering eyes from nosy passers-by.
As a company, Spacetop’s Sightful team has raised $61 million to date and continues to work on providing immediate AR utility without feeling any pressures to live in a whole new metaverse.
“This is the right approach, at the right moment,” said Eden Shochat, speaking on the behalf of Aleph, one of the top global investors in Sightful’s venture. “Sightful has the perfect team advocating for useful AR, and they are charting a new path for users’ everyday needs.”
Learn more here about Sightful Early Access and Spacetop’s bridge between reality and AR, with work-remote versatility built in.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
