Vuzix began selling its AR smart glasses for $999

Vuzix, an augmented reality and smart eyewear company based in Rochester, New York, said it is now accepting orders for its Blade AR glasses , a pre-production version available to consumers, using so-called waveguide technology to float microdisplays in a pair of cumbersome In the right lens of the sunglasses, this is actually the same type of display projection technology used in Magic Leap One, which Vuzix calls the "Cobra Display Engine.

However, in contrast to Magic Leap or Microsoft 's Hololens, both create virtual images that interact with the real world and can be modified in real time by the user. Blade is more focused on becoming an accessory to the phone than a complete immersive AR device. It projects a translucent and much smaller rectangular screen, which is more like a heads-up display for mirroring phone notifications and running applications. It's basically what Google Glass has done, but with a higher resolution full-color display for a wider field of view. The design of the entire package is also more beautiful than the wearable devices that Google has a fate.

Vuzix and potential third-party application developers can decide to use the visual source of the glasses to enhance what the user sees, while adding features such as facial recognition or enhanced live camera input. The company also posted some demos on the web that show how it can be used to run 3D simulation applications like those running on Magic Leap One or HoloLens.

Vuzix has been serving developers for the past 12 months, but now it says it is ready to sell consumer versions. The price is $999. But the company said that in addition to Amazon's Alexa, there are many new benefits, including support for Google Assistant. It also works with some streaming video providers, and it can't currently disclose which on-demand videos are brought to the glasses, but watching TV or movies on demand may not be the primary use of Blade.