Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company (NASDAQ: VUZI) with offices in Rochester, NY; Oxford, UK; and Tokyo, Japan. The Company has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2018 and several wireless technology innovation awards among others.
The company is engaged in the design, manufacture, marketing and sale of wearable display devices. These devices are worn like eyeglasses and feature built-in video screens that enable the user to view and interact with video and digital content, including movies, video games, computer data and the Internet.
Our wearable display products are known commercially as Smart and Augmented Reality Glasses, Video iWear (Eyewear), head mounted displays or HMDs. These products are capable of providing virtual, large high-resolution screens and yet they can fit in a user’s pocket or purse and can be viewed practically anywhere, anytime. Vuzix devices can also be used for augmented reality applications, in which the wearer has their real world view augmented with computer generated information. Our products are designed to work with mobile electronic devices, including cell phones, laptop computers, tablets, and portable media players and gaming systems.
We produce and sell two main types of wearable display products: Smart Glasses for a variety of enterprise and commercial users and applications, including AR; and Video Viewing glasses, for on-the-go users as mobile displays for entertainment and gaming. Our products are available with varying features, including with and without application running computer processors, and are offered as either monocular or binocular display systems. With its origins in defense R&D for next-generation military display solutions, Vuzix is now just focused on pursuing the enterprise and consumer markets for wearable computing and personal AR display devices.
As a respected industry pioneer, Vuzix maintains a strong intellectual property portfolio consisting of 59 patents issued and an additional 42 pending. Some of its competitive technology differentiators include Passive and Dynamic Holographic waveguide optics for existing 2D displays, reality gesture control and ambient light transmission control, LED micro scanning display engine, large field of view HD optics, full color waveguide optics and development plans for curved see-through optical surfaces.
Vuzix founders and management own 17% of its outstanding shares. Intel Corporation owns 49,626 Series A Convertible Preferred shares, which if converted represent an 18% ownership stake based on current number of outstanding common shares.