Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) were popular topics in 2016 and the industry is now considered as the technology of the future. The development of AR technology is changing the way people see and learn. According to a research report published by Zion Research, augmented reality market is expected to reach approximately $133.78 billion by 2021, with an annual compound growth rate of 85.2%. The research indicates that High penetration of smartphone and escalating convergence between AR and wearable devices continue to drive demand for the market.

The revolution of Augmented reality applications brings people a different kind of living experiences. For example, TryLive by Total Immersion changes consumers' shopping experience by enabling virtually try-on glasses, clothes and many accessories. Wearable display glasses enable people to run applications. The gaming sector benefits the most with AR technology, but the technology now is used in many other fields, like aerospace & defense, education, tourism, retails and e-commerce.

Vuzix Corporation is a supplier of Smart-Glasses, AR and Virtual Reality (VR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets just announced earlier today that, "the Company has completed, passed, and filed with the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) all of the (FCC) emission's requirements for its next generation M300 Smart Glasses. Vuzix expects to commence shipping of the M300 Smart Glasses to customers in the USA and Canada within days of this filing. With FCC filings now in place and the recent certification for shipments to Europe completed last month, the Company is now positioned for the full commercial launch to its largest initial markets. Other major regions of the world should follow with submissions of their required regulatory filings through the first quarter of 2017, enabling Vuzix to expand its M300 offerings near worldwide.

The new Vuzix M300 represents the next generation of smart glasses, designed to address customer feedback from more than three years of productive use of the earlier M100.  This field experience has led to the addition of many empowering, barrier-reducing features such as improved ergonomics, modern security capabilities, enhanced Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, and industry leading video streaming. These improvements are just some of the many that allow the M300 to be a central communications platform to and from a client's remote workforce, connecting their corporate data and IOT field devices in real time to the people in the field who need them.

The work over the last six months to establish the Vuzix VIP application software partner program has resulted in a significant pipeline of customer budgeted and approved projects awaiting the arrival of the M300. Vuzix will begin with production M300 shipments to these EU and US VIP partners who have been pre-allocated units for immediate deployment to their existing client base. In addition, we have many orders from customers that have taken advantage of the M100/M300 migration program and/or placed pre-orders for the M300.

These order pipelines are significantly greater than when the M100 launched and the Company expects that it will continue to enjoy robust growth in smart glasses revenues, as clients accelerate volume deployments.  "We are now set up to ship the M300 to the hundreds of US customers that represent the beginnings of volume roll outs," said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix."

Cloud infrastructure and business mobility company, VMware Inc. announced the addition of new smart glasses management features to VMware AirWatch(R). According to the statement, the update will bring a consistent management platform to streamlined onboarding experiences, network setup and application deployment to organizations seeking to leverage augmented and mixed reality devices to transform business processes. VMware is the first unified endpoint management solution to extend into wearables, enabling customers to manage their smart glasses alongside existing desktop and mobile endpoints.

VMware is also working alongside with APX Labs, Atheer, Intel, ODG and VUZIX Corporation to help provide wearable management and application delivery solutions.

American multinational semiconductor and telecommunications, QUALCOMM Inc. company subsidiary along with developer and manufacturer of mobile head worn computing and augmented reality technologies and products, Osterhout Design Group announced that R-8 and R-9 will be the first announced devices powered by the Qualcomm's Snapdragon(TM) 835 processor, which uses 10-nanometer FinFET process technology to enable a new generation of premium consumer devices in small form factors with breakthrough performance and superior power efficiency. R-8 is Osterhout Design Group's consumer mobile Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality smartglasses, and R-9 is for a wide variety of wide field-of-view experiences from light enterprise.

Global semiconductor company, STMicroelectronics reported that its LSM6DSM 6-axis Inertial Measurement Unit is now to be used in next-generation mobile devices running with Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) high-performance virtual-reality platform, Google Daydream, along with a platform that maps 3-Dimensional space enabling it to be overlaid with virtual objects, Tango. "Certification of ST's 6-axis motion-sensing device for operation with Daydream and Tango for amazing virtual- and augmented-reality experiences demonstrates our abilities to design and deliver an exceptionally accurate and power-efficient IMU," said Aymeric Gisselbrecht, Vice President Global Key Accounts Sales, and STMicroelectronics. "Our long-term developments in sensing and actuation, along with our work with Google, are contributing to making mobile applications incredibly immersive and even more fun."

(Source: FinancialBuzz)