We are engaged in the design, manufacture, marketing and sale of augmented
reality wearable display devices also referred to as head mounted displays (or
HMDs, but also known as Video Eyewear, near-eye displays, near-eye virtual displays),
in the form of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) glasses. Our AR wearable
display devices are worn like eyeglasses and contain varying features such as
built-in video screens and audio. These devices also often include cameras,
sensors, and a computer, that enable the user to view and interact with video
and digital content, such as movies, computer data, the Internet or video games.
Our AR wearable display products provide virtual large high-resolution screens
and present a virtual image to the user through our proprietary optics and projection
engines. Using these optics and displays, our AR wearable display devices provide
a virtual image that appears to the wearer similar in size to the image from
a typical smart phone screen at arm’s length away, all the way to models
that offer wall-sized home theatre screens. Our virtual imaging products integrate
microdisplay technology with our advanced optics to produce compact high-resolution
display engines, less than half an inch diagonally, which when viewed through
our eyeglasses products create virtual images that appear comparable in size
to that of a computer monitor or a large-screen television.
Our Smart Glasses are designed to work standalone or as a peripheral to the
smartphone and have many of the same capabilities of the smartphone itself,
allowing them to be used as a hands-free wearable computer. Our products can
be used as a wearable substitute for large-screen televisions, desktop computer
monitors or tablets. Additionally, our Smart Glasses models allow users to utilize
many smartphone applications while keeping their smartphones in a pocket or
purse. Users of mobile devices sometime employ tablets and smartphones to replace
their personal computer or console game systems while they are outside their
homes or offices. Our wearable display products enable users of these mobile
devices to effectively view the entire screen on a small, eyeglass-like device
allowing real world interaction while viewing the screen.
We believe some of the most promising future uses of wearable displays are
Smart Glasses and AR glasses where virtual 2D and 3D computer-generated objects
and information are superimposed to enhance real-world views. This see-through
capability is accomplished using a see-through optic, built around our waveguide
intellectual property or digitally with a forward-looking camera. Our wearable
displays can also be used for AR applications, in which the wearer has their
real-world view augmented with computer generated information or graphics as
is typical in either consumer or enterprise applications.
In the past, see-through HMDs displayed the real world using semi-transparent
mirrors placed in front of the user’s eyes. These HMDs were large and
bulky and as a result, they had little mass-market appeal. We have developed
thin optics, called waveguides, that are fully see-through and enable miniature
display engines to be mounted in the temples of the HMD which allows the form
factor of the Smart Glasses to be comparable to conventional eyeglasses. Our
Smart Glasses and AR Glasses are designed for all day use cases and are small
enough to fit in a user’s pocket or purse.
With hands free wearable computers like our M300 and M100 Smart Glasses, the
user can merge virtual information with the real world, known as AR. With this
capability, we have the potential to penetrate many new markets in the consumer
and enterprise markets. An example of AR is the yellow “first down”
line seen in television broadcasts of American football games, in which the
line the offensive team must cross to achieve a first down is superimposed on
the field itself. The real-world elements are the football field and players;
the virtual element is the yellow line. We believe see-through wearable displays
will enable this kind of experience on Smart Glasses running their own native
AR applications, virtually anywhere and anytime. Our Smart Glasses product line
can run these kinds of applications natively as they have much of the capabilities
of a smartphone built into them, including running full operating systems like
Alphabet (Google) Inc.’s Android.
Our waveguide and display engine products enable our original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) customers to develop and market improved wearable products that are mobile
so that people have immediate access to information and can experience new forms
of communications, entertainment, and social media content.
We believe that our waveguide optics and display engines offer a number of
significant advantages over other wearable display solutions, including higher
contrast, greater power efficiency, less weight, more compact size, and high
brightness images for use outdoors. We also believe that our waveguide optics
give us a substantial advantage over other competitors’ optics, including
other waveguides because it allows us to produce optics that are fully transparent
when off, along with the high brightness required for AR and enterprise Smart
Glasses applications.
We believe that a key growth area for us is the consumer electronic OEM market.
Our potential channels to this market include supplying mass production of waveguide
optics and display engines to select third parties to use in their products.
We believe that our waveguides and compact display engine technologies are a
key differentiator for enabling next generation AR and Smart Glasses hardware
for the consumer and enterprise segments because they allow us to make HMDs
nearly indistinguishable from regular eyeglasses.
We have developed our own intellectual property portfolio that includes patents,
over 20 years of manufacturing know-how, and proprietary processes, materials
and equipment to create high performance waveguides and near-eye display products.
We believe our technology, intellectual property portfolio and position in the
marketplace give us a leadership position in AR and Smart Glasses products and
waveguide optics and display engine technology.