The recent industry whispers in augmented reality are mostly about Apple and its rumored fashion-friendly smartglasses, but one company isn’t waiting for the iPhone heavyweight to enter the fray.
On Monday, a representative for Vuzix shared part of a recent investor presentation with Next Reality. That part of the presentation includes an image of the next, unreleased version of the company’s smartglasses, and it looks pretty damn good.
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In fact, the smartglasses look about as normal as you can expect when you consider the fact that they contain components for viewing virtual content. The only telltale signs of embedded tech are the slightly thicker than normal arms on the frames (which serve touch interfaces), which will likely be unnoticeable by all but the most studied follower of cutting-edge AR wearables.
One of the partners involved in making the new device is Plessey and its microLED technology, which has been in the spotlight in recent months regarding Vuzix’s next moves.
That relationship is largely based on the use of Plessey’s Quanta-Brite technology, which the company describes as an „advanced and proprietary gallium-nitride-on-silicon (GaN-on-Si) technology, with an integrated monolithic array of RGB pixels with advanced first level micro-optical elements.“ What that technology delivers, according to Plessey, are smaller and lighter optical systems by up to 50% when compared to competing products.
„[Plessey’s] microLED technology represents a key part of the solution needed to bring the form and functionality of Vuzix next generation smartglasses to the look and feel of fashion-forward glasses, solutions the world will be clamoring for,“ said Paul Travers, Vuzix’s CEO, in a statement when they announced the partnership in May.
