Vuzix is revolutionizing smart glasses software thanks to the guidance of their visionary CEO, Paul Travers. His experience in the wearables space is vast, beginning with Virtual Reality (VR) headsets in the early ‘90s for gaming interfaces like Quake, Doom and nearly a hundred other titles. On the ground floor adapting mixed reality technology, this entrepreneur has witnessed computing evolve over the years.
Paul Travers worked for the U.S. Navy and other companies, eventually building electronic binoculars for Hitachi before founding his own enterprises. Focused on technology for both consumers and businesses, he always respected the way cameras looked out into the real world while offering augmented versions of what users see. Having successfully built and sold businesses, he feels the promise in Vuzix technology is beyond belief.
Travers started Vuzix in 1997, recognizing the potential offered to computers by adding cameras. Today, he stands at the inflection point for Augmented Reality (AR) and sees benefits across numerous industries when combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Now AI-enabled smart glasses are slashing training times, eliminating costly errors, and delivering real-time guidance to frontline workers.
“It’s really hard to fathom how big a deal this is going to become,” said Travers.
Enhancing User Experience
Smart glasses are used for two-way communication. Users are able to see HD video feed off each pair, along with a display for others to inform processes and operations in real-time. Everything is interactive because of two-way visual communication which pops up right in the field of vision and is paired with voice.
”I’m walking around in the building, and you can see what I’m seeing because the camera’s running,” Travers explained.
No longer any need to pull up a PDF. Instead, just draw or point an arrow in real time on a video feed while that arrow stays there in space, visible on a screen. When gathering information, no need to write up or take pictures on a phone in order to type up a work order for parts. Everything is being automated now, and smart glasses are changing the world in enterprise.
“There’s no back and forth, training becomes a few hours—just put the headset on and get started,” advised Travers.
Vuzix has partnered with Quanta Computers to make their patented Waveguide lenses. This technology creates a flat, transparent display that measures only one millimeter in thickness. They look like lenses that go in a pair of glasses, but they are actually the windows into a computer from which the information is pushed through to the user.
Wearables Transform Industries
The promise of smart glasses is in the workplace, not in gaming or entertainment. Vuzix welcomes the future of warehousing as it stands in relation to smart glasses. Certain industries stand to benefit most: logistics, healthcare, manufacturing and field service. Across all these sectors, AI assistants in smart glasses deliver hands-free training and instant operational support.
“Augmenting humanity is going to be the big next frontier where humans get better because they have access to tools like an AI engine and an AI assist agent moving things forward,” emphasized Travers.
Vuzix is working with Nadro, Mexico’s largest pharmaceutical distributor, and the company has reported 93% faster employee onboarding with 30% faster order picking. This wearable technology is directly helping ease the company’s labor shortages and supply chain bottlenecks.
Companies in the defense space are also using Vuzix lens technology. One part of the business is focused on OEM and custom builds, along with their enterprise product business. The next-gen stuff that they are working on enables spatial computing along with the current features.
They have almost 450 plus patents and patents pending, with every intention to provide this technology to their high volume customers in the broad markets. They also welcome competitors to come purchase Waveguides from them all day long.
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AR Requires AI for Success
AR doesn’t just mean you put your hand out in space and you type on a virtual keyboard, or that you point to things and slide them around. Vuzix knows that it is exhausting to put your hands up in space like that without a physical feedback mechanism.
“If you have an AI engine and a camera running, it just closes the loop and makes it all work,” said Travers.
When you bring AI to a pair of AR glasses, all those things are just going to be simply automated and voice controlled. At that point, things get so much easier. AI is accelerating the possibilities so much faster because it provides capabilities that are essentially omniscient. Important work across every part of life will occur without the hours of research they would otherwise require.
The AR component is augmenting the real world, inserting a visual element in like a simulation. Smart glasses provide that capability. The power lies in combining AR with the Large Language Models (LLMs) of AI that use data they point to the real world, using augmented reality to enable the AI engine to drive the human-computer interface.
The Future of Smart Glasses
Smart glasses are starting to look and feel like real glasses. Fashion-forward designs are now very important as users want sleek, sexy designs that are comfortable on the face and don’t feel like ski-goggles.
Housing features developed by Vuzix have enabled wearable smart glasses for more standard use. Things started out big and bulky, but these products need to be practical for employees to wear them for a long shift. Also, the battery has to be able to last.
Travers insists that smart glasses are going to be the next replacement for the phone. Ride share accounts will be connected to smart glasses through AI agents. Mapping services will become obsolete as users will no longer have to look down at their phones. Users will just ask their glasses how to get somewhere, and they will do all the work.
“The whole concept of an application is going away,” said Travers. “An AI agent is going to be your best friend.”