Vuzix Corporation, a supplier of video eyewear and smart glasses products in the enterprise and consumer markets, announced an optical breakthrough that will improve glasses-based wearable technology at Wearable Technology Expo 2013, which took place this week in New York, New York (US). The new Waveguide optics engine, jointly developed with Nokia, makes smart eyewear technology capable of fitting into standard glasses frames possible. Waveguide is being introduced with the release of the Vuzix M2000AR Head Mounted Display (HMD). Waveguide optics are a way of moving light within smart glasses and are small and lightweight. Waveguide optics also deliver a wide field of view (FOV).
As opposed to requiring large optics to focus and create the required virtual image, Waveguide optics use a 1.4-millimetre (mm) thin “window” (which operates in a way similar to fibre-optics) with a tiny input pupil that is expanded using a hologram in front of the eye. Light is not bent through bulk material, as it is in conventional optics; this provides a significant improvement in mass, weight, volume, simplicity and overall optical performance.
Image 2: Waveguide optics technology incorporates into standard eyeglass frames. (PRNewsFoto/Vuzix)
The first Vuzix product to use the Waveguide technology is the M2000AR for Enterprise. This monocular solution is the first of many planned Waveguide-based solutions for 2014 and is ruggedized for industrial applications. The M2000AR also includes: a 720p display and 1080p camera; a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI); an electronic sunglasses “tint”; a 30° FOV; daylight-usable with up to 8000 nits of brightness (one “nit” is equivalent to one candela per square meter); integrated head-tracking; an integrated compass; an anodised aluminium-alloy enclosure; and a rechargeable Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery.
Image 1 (top of page): The Vuzix M2000AR (PRNewsFoto/Vuzix)
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