Video eyewear and smart glass maker Vuzix announced what it says is a “major optical breakthrough that will dramatically improve glasses-based wearable technology.” The new Waveguide optics engine was jointly developed with Nokia, enabling smart eyewear technology capable of fitting into standard glasses frames, as demonstrated by the newly announced Vuzix M2000AR HMD.
Waveguide optics are a revolutionary new way of moving light within smart glasses and are a fraction of the size and weight of conventional prism-based optics used in competing wearable smart devices. Waveguide optics also deliver a much wider field of view for the user.
As opposed to requiring large optics to focus and create the required virtual image, Waveguide optics use a 1.4mm thin “window” (operating similar to a fiber optic) with a tiny input pupil that is expanded using a hologram in front of the eye. Light is not bent through bulk material as in conventional optics, which provides a significant improvement in mass, weight, volume, simplicity and overall optical performance. The technology was originally developed by Nokia and licensed to Vuzix. Vuzix integrated it with its own waveguide technology and developed other improvements for its release into Vuzix products.
The mentioned M2000AR is just the first of many planned waveguide-based solutions for 2014. It’s a monocular solution made for Enterprise, featuring 720p display and 1080p camera, HDMI Interface, electronic sunglass “tint”, daylight usable with up to 8,000 Nits of brightness, integrated head tracking & compass, anodized aluminum alloy enclosure, and rechargeable lithium ion battery.
Vuzix hopes to use the upcoming CES in Las Vegas to show the world the M2000AR in action. Meanwhile, business can already order their units from vuzix.com…