If CES ever brews up a Lifetime Innovations Awards Achievement Award (LIAAA), Vuzix will be in the running. This year CES named the augmented reality (AR) and smart glasses trailblazer as a double CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree. According to Vuzix, this will be its 18th consecutive year of CES Innovation Awards. Given that 18 years is a hefty chunk of the history of AR and smart glasses, Vuzix also deserves awards for persistence and consistency.
Vuzix’s awards this year are for their Vuzix Shield next-gen enterprise smart glasses and for what Vuzix describes as the “first binocular AR smart glasses with HD stereo cameras.” Vuzix Shield AR glasses run with an 8-core CPU on Android 11 OS and include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The glasses’ temples hold a touchpad, batteries, and stereo audio components. The glasses are Z87.1 safety glass rated and can be used with prescription lenses. Vuzix Shield glasses can connect through enterprise clouds to access IT sensors, instructions, and live remote guidance, according to Vuzix. Wearers will also be able to scan codes and stream video wirelessly, operating the processes with voice commands or touch. There is no public availability schedule for Vuzix Shield or the binocular AR smart glasses. Vuzix announced plans to begin sampling Vuzix Shield in January 2022 as design validation test (DVT) units.
A CES Innovation Award Honoree doesn’t necessary have a shipping product, but hopefully we’ll learn more about these Vuzix technology leaps at CES 2022 at the Innovation Awards Showcase. CES 2022 takes place January 5-8 in Las Vegas.
