Vuzix Intros SMART Glasses Tech at CES

This new tech promises not only "wearable TV" in a compact, sunglasses-like form factor, but interaction with SMART devices.

Next week during CES 2012, Vuzix Corporation will unveil what it calls SMART Glasses technology. It promises to be thinner than the typical head mounted display, fitting into the temples and lenses of a conventional pair of eyewear. It will also pipe in more than just "wearable TV," bringing interactive content served up on Internet-connected SMART devices literally right to your face.

"This amazing new technology starts with a compact display engine capable of hi contrast and brightness for outdoor use," the company said during the show. "The output is then relayed into a 1.4 mm thick plastic waveguide lens with input and output hologram structures on the surface which squeezes the light down the waveguide and then two dimensionally expands the image back into the user’s eye, creating an image that is then mixed into the real world."

The new tech will be used in a line of both monocular and binocular SMART Glasses for commercial, industrial and consumer markets. Applications for the tech will include standalone solutions for night vision and first responder use, to fully internet connected and geospatially aware devices for "amazing Augmented Reality applications."

"With integrated head tracking and options for multiple camera technologies Vuzix SMART Glasses can broaden the users’ sensory perception across a greatly expanded light spectrum," Vuzix added. "Additionally they can be used to recognize their environment along with their position in the real world, all-the-while recording and transmitting what the user sees."

Back in September Vuzix released the Wrap 1200VR, a set of sunglasses-styled specs offering the equivalent to watching 3D content on a 75-inch display from 10 feet away. Packed with WVGA displays supporting up to 720p, the headset supports the latest side-by-side 3D video format. It also uses a new head-tracking technology called Wrap Tracker 6TC (with compass) which includes 9 sensors that work together to create a 3-degree of freedom solution with automatic drift compensation.

As for the new SMART Glasses tech, Vuzix said devices will begin to enter the commercial and industrial markets by summer 2012. Additional information regarding those devices and the new tech in general will be provided next week, so stay tuned.