 So we're here at the Mobile World Congress, the ultimate mobile trade show in the world, and who are you? I am Matt Margolis, Director of Business Development and Strategic Relationships at VUZIX. And you're wearing right here the blade. Yes, this is the VUZIX blade. And it's fully mass production right now. You're actually shipping, right? Yeah, we've been working on this for a while. We've been shipping a lot through 2018 to developers and strategic partners, and we're ramping up production. Right now, we're looking at getting up to 2,000 pieces a month by the end of March. So things are definitely getting very exciting. And what's been great is our return rate for the blade has been extremely low. So the folks that are getting it, they love it. It's stable? They're using it. Yeah, it's stable. We've been rolling out a lot of releases. So if you look at what we have, we've rolled out our commercial edition in the fall. We've then added some new features. We've opened up the ability to reply to messages, answer a phone call, receive your notifications. We're going to have an upcoming release here shortly that allow you to get the GPS information off the phone. And what that's going to do is we're going to have some apps like Yelp, which will allow you, let's say you're in downtown Barcelona, you could go outside, look around the city, and it will give you the score, the rating, information that you need on the fly to make your best decision for dining. We're also working with a company called AccuWeather. We're going to have an AccuWeather app, which will give you kind of real-time information on the weather, maybe your last four locations. And this is more than just like a flat file, it would be something more like a video, kind of interactive and fun on the glasses. We're also going to see some new apps from us. So we're going to have a sports score app, a news app, as well as we're working with several folks to do some voice to text and language translation. Really the sky's the limit. If you have the right developer, it's a standard Android. It's been very easy for folks to build applications. The glasses connect to the web via WiFi or Bluetooth. So you're connected to the web, it's an Android device. It's really easy for folks to develop and build applications for the glasses. So you're not just wearing smart glasses, you're not just wearing sunglasses. You have a little screen right there. I do, and if I were to get a text message or a phone call, it would pop up right on the screen for me. With the WaveGuide technology. So can you take it off? So is it, how good is it? Because that's the crucial, crucial thing. So all the people that have been trying it out so far, what did they say? The feedback's been great. I think from, again, developers, it's a real simple, it's Android. You know, if you were a developer and you were to go into our database, you'd have easy, they're set up to be able to develop sample code. It's just real easy to get started and just to build applications. So that part's been great. We also have a great support staff that allows folks to, if they're having challenges or they want to work with us, we work with them directly. And also our app store. I think we're up to about 20 apps and that's going to continue to expand. You've had folks that have been using this, behind the scenes and their apps are starting to come together. So we're going to have new applications, utilities, a lot of information for folks to have just on their glasses. So it's very exciting. So what's been going on in the last few months? Because that's how the CES boosts. It was really action-packed all over these cool demos and it just feels like you're, there's a lot of things happening right now with music. Especially maybe with the app ecosystem or ramping up the mass production. Yeah, I think the biggest thing is we're actually getting the OS or adding new features to the OS to open up the app development. We've been seeding a lot of developers, which has been great, so. So for example, if you put it on, you can maybe show a little bit about the latest version of your app right now. Yeah, so let me open up my phone for a sec here. Is it iOS and Android? Yeah, so this is iOS and Android. So this is our MusicSplay companion app. So it shows you if you're connected, your battery life, the memory. Which is nice if you go to settings. If you want to get into Wi-Fi, you can go and pick a network, you select. It'll allow you to type right on the phones. You don't have to try to play with the keyboard. What's also nice here is if the display, let's say I want it set lower, higher in display, I can move it down. It'll move the actual image down on the screen. If I want to move it up, it'll move it up. If I want to control the brightness, I can make it brighter if it's too bright for me at night. Like move it up or down, so it doesn't mean... Up or down within the window. It's like when you have a projector and you can digitally move the... So right on the fly, you can put this on it'll move the image up or down. So let's say you wanted an application that maybe you wanted a little bit out of the way, you can set it down. And everybody's eye is a little bit different. So some people are set to the middle, some people are set higher. So this allows the glasses to work for almost everybody. But what's the whole resolution right there on the low-key? So right now we have about 28 degrees is the total. And we work with about 20 degrees. So... Is that the place where it projects? Or is it like the whole resolution is on the whole height? The whole... So we only use a portion of that. So what we use in the display is about 20 degrees. The total that's there is 28 on the waveguide. So but because we allow it to move up or down, we're not using the full 28 degrees right now on this current build. Nice. Waveguide is really cool, right? Vuzix has been doing smart glasses for a while, but the waveguide is a different kind of thing. The waveguide's been a, you know, if you look at what's out there, nobody wants to wear big and bulky. And I think what's nice about the waveguide and especially our waveguides is they're very efficient. So unlike some other smart glasses, if you were to go outside, you can't compete with the outdoors. You need to put on a shade. With ours, we actually have a mode on here, this UI mode, which sets a dynamic. And what this does is if I go outside, the glasses are going to respond to the light and actually turn on the brightness and respond. So, which is great, which means on a bright sunny day, like today, I can still see the display. But then when I'm indoors, the glasses know that you're indoors. It's not as bright and it'll dial down the display. That's one of the things that, so this is using DLP micro projector in there. It's a TI DLP. NHD maybe, or a small projector in there that goes through the waveguide, which is totally amazing. But one of the arguments that micro LED people have been saying is that maybe for this kind of application you can have brighter display. You're also talking about potentially working with micro LED, right? Yeah, so if you look at the nice thing about micro LED is you think about a TV and then maybe it's got 10,000 pixels. With a micro LED, you're able to just turn on only a few of the pixels. So you can imagine right now, like when we put an image into display, it lights up the whole display with a micro LED. You can only light up what you need, which means you're going to use a lot less battery. It's more efficient. So that alone will drive improvements in battery, which is another, you know, a big factor for wearables. And I noticed that the glass is not too dark, right? Yeah. So you don't really have to take them off when you get indoors. Yeah, so I went to a basketball game, my family, in November for over Thanksgiving and I wore them during the whole game with them on and it didn't disrupt my vision. It was still clear. So, you know, they might look like there's a little bit of a temp, but when you look out, there's really not much that changes in the real world. So it's pretty nice. Matt, can we see something else going on in the app? Because it's crucial to have something usable, right? So how many things are working right now? So here's a bunch of apps that we have kind of in development. You can kind of see we've got Alexa, we've got some streaming video stuff, news. You have the Google Assistant too? Google Assistant is not on here. We do have that. We are playing with that internally. And we did showcase that at CES. It's not particularly on mine. And then what's nice here is our, this is our phone. Can you tilt your phone just a little bit? Yeah, so here's our photo. So what's nice is our latest update. It allows you to take a photo right off the blade through Wi-Fi Direct and Connect. So this is, you know, where I'm standing in front right here. You know, right here is what you're seeing. I took this on my blade and then threw our companion app. It allows you to take the information right off the blade. And I can one click and I can send a message. I can send an email. I can add it to Twitter, Facebook, wherever I want. I can share just one click right from, right from my blade to my phone, right to social. This is all done through our companion app that music's developed. Nice. And that tethers to the blade of a Wi-Fi Direct? Yeah, it's a Wi-Fi Direct connection which allows you to take video and pictures and put it on your phone to allow you to do sharing. But the blade itself will connect to your phone through Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Nice. Otherwise, is one of the main things that is happening right now is notifications that you have going on? And how do you select which ones go in there? Is like a basic smartwatch kind of system? Yeah, so the notifications are controlled actually with your phone. So whatever notifications you enable on your phone. So if I were to go to my phone, so any of these notifications, if I were to turn something on, they'll allow it to go through the blade. So that's real simple. And that gives you, if you're traveling, you have a gate change, any information you need, all that would just show up right on the glasses. So again, this keeps you informed. What's nice about the glasses, if you need to take a picture, you can never miss a shot. You're always connected, which is great. And so let's say I get a WhatsApp message. What can I do with it? Well, if you have Android, you're able to reply through that, through the blade, you can reply through a message. How do you reply? So I don't have it on my, so I'm an iOS user, unfortunately, but through the companion app, you'd actually have, there'll be some canned messages in here. So not in this build, but if you had the Android, you'd have a, it would show up here. Here's your reply. Here's your standard. Like when you're driving in a car and it says, hey, I'm busy, you can put in custom messages that you use frequently. By tap or something? Just, yeah, so right on the glass, if you got a message, you would just click on there and hit reply, and then you'd select a dropdown right on there and just click, Canned messages, right? And just click send, and it'll send it right through. You don't do voice recognition kind of stuff? We're working on voice attacks. I think that's, part of this is adding new features. And what's nice about our platform is, it's OTA, so we can update the OS, we can add new features. We support Android applications. We have an app store. So a lot of what I do in my role is actually looking for partners that want to put in their sports information or maybe streaming video. We're always looking for folks that want to develop and add new features for the glasses. But we have a great canvas. It's a ability for developers and partners to put in information. It's just real easy to get things going. But does it have a noise cancellation? Yeah, there's noise. There's noise canceling mics on here. So it takes just your sound? Yeah. Doesn't it come in from the people next to you? No, it's really meant to be, think about a speaker. It's meant to be picking up what's coming on around you. When we went to CES, we tested our different assistants, Google assistant, Amazon Alexa. We were testing that in loud environments and we were able to do the sound at a close proximity. So the mics are pretty good. They pick up the sound where it needs to come from. Which is great. And I've actually whispered in it quietly before and it just picks it up real good on Alexa, even. And how's the battery life? What's been the response on that front? Yeah, so battery life... Do you plug in the power bank or are they actually good? So for battery life, for me, I've been getting usually about four to six hours. That means I'm doing some applications, some pictures, checking notifications, that type of thing. If I'm going to watch streaming video or I'm going to run the camera heavy and take video, you might get a couple hours. But if you were to limit notifications, you just wanted to follow a couple of things. You'd probably get more than four to six hours, but it's pretty much lasted a day for me on Amazon. So can you take it off? And so there's the little camera over here and the resolution and the quality on that one. People are happy? Yeah, it's an eight megapixel camera here. It does stills in video. So it's high depth video, eight megapixel camera. And what's nice too is people are concerned about privacy. When I do turn the camera on, which I can do for you, there you'll see the red light turn on. So let me just do that for you. So you go through the UI. Yeah, so they go to the apps, a lot of apps on here. It's just amazing. It's like magic a little bit. There we go, ready? You should see that red light turn on here in a second. Yeah, I saw the red lights. I see that. It pops up as soon as you're in the app or when you start recording. As soon as I start recording. So here it is now. You can see the red light come on. So now I'm recording you. Now I'm stopping. So if you looked in here, I don't know if you can get it, but you'd see a picture of yourself recording me. Yeah, so if I went to my photos, you can see it on there. And the camera is nice. You can actually do, there's two modes. One can be the preview mode. So if you wanna actually preview where you're gonna take a picture of, that'll show up and then you tap it. Or if you just wanted to take pictures as a little box and once you take it, you'll get a quick flash. It'll show you the picture you took. And then if I go to my companion app, go to the photos icon, it'll bring over all those photos almost instantly for you to share and do what you want with it. So your role at Musics, are you doing business? Yeah, doing business development. Business developer, yeah. So does that mean there's a lot of potential contacts you're doing right now with all kinds of, let's say we're in this amazing place right here. Couldn't they be renting those out when people come in or they get extra info about all this stuff? Yeah, so I do a lot. So one of the verticals is sports, talking to a bunch of the professional sports teams. That's an area where, with the glasses, if you were in a place like this even and you wanted to look at a marker or some information, I wanna know what I'm looking at here. You could actually put the glasses on. It would give you information based on a marker and it just provides so much information that you wouldn't be able to get it. You won't need a person to talk to you. So sports, museums, that's an area of interest. And for us, we're doing a lot of work today with the wireless carriers. So guys in the US, guys in Europe, guys in Asia, they're interested in 5G. They're also interested in AR. If you talk to some of the companies out there, they're focused on services. They look at AR as another way to consume data, consume information and provide information. But it's also more than that. It's going to the store, going to your grocery store and being able to shop using the glasses, it brings up your virtual cart. There's just so much you can do with glasses once they're connected to 4G or 5G service. Why are you talking with any of those supermarket chains? Like let's say there can be a little deal with the Amazon, I'm just gonna speak out loud, right? Yeah. Because they own big retail markets, what's called the healthy ones. Well, no, I think it's always small. But what I can say is, and then you can enter and maybe they can add into the database and you can get an augmented shopping experience. So how much are you reaching out to all these potentials? So I would say there's multiple large company, big box companies that have grocery arms that are looking at our glasses and actually buying some in these instances and building. So a lot of what we have is if people are going shopping and they place an order online and they come to do a pickup, the glasses can be used to actually scan the order and give it to the customer. So this is one of the use cases in the B2B but also really in the B2C where you have a consumer facing part of your business, grocery stores, big box retailers, they're buying these and piloting them right now in their stores. Are you partnering with Tinder? I just think it could be an amazing little application right there, you could walk around this place, you can see an overlay on who wants to network. I think that's another, it's a great example, I think between Tinder, Twitch, there's a lot of these applications to be able to do a visual, it's a simple interface. Even Twitch to be able to stream. I know you love the camera, so something like that with the right interface, that certainly could work on a glasses. We could go and stream outward. You could also use it to stream and then also receive the messages. So you could stay connected instead of having two monitors you want to check in, you could limit your chat. All that information could be used right on our glasses. I think you can work with like Dubai or something, the Emirates, right? And when you arrive, you leave them your passport, they give you one of these and then you get an augmented two day stopover. And the whole country would be augmented. Okay, I'm just, there's all these, but maybe, the trick is, when do you get to the killer apps and do you have some already or how many can come just around the corner? I think just, it's a standard Android, where you have a camera and you can connect to the real world. It's really limitless what you can do. I mean, one thing now with the latest releases for Android, if you're driving down the street, you can get notifications. So turn left a hundred feet, turn right over here. So it allows you instead of having to look down at your dash somewhere else, you can have the information right on your glasses. So it's, that's even that use case alone is pretty remarkable. You know, think of all the Uber drivers you've been with that have two places they're looking at for directions. Having it right in the glasses, I think would be a great use case. Some people talk about safety. We're going to put in a mode in there, which we can limit if needed. So if it knows you're in motion, you're kind of being in driving mode. But I think it's still a lot safer than other methods out there. So how many Tesla engineers have a sample? Ha ha, because that would be a great little thing. They have this new Tesla Model 3. It only has a little display over there, but it'd be great if they can integrate with that one. Yeah, we're working with theme parks, folks that support the DAF. I mean, really anything you can bring information, we're also using it, teen operators are using it, stores for retail are using it. It's really a great device. Let's say I thought I had a killer app, right? And I wanted to do it. How difficult is it for me to integrate with the API and all that stuff? So you've got to be number one familiar with Android. So if we support Unity as one platform we support, the other thing is Android Studio. So if you're an Android developer, Android Studio you log into our website as a developer. And then from there, we have a whole series of shortcuts, example code. We actually did a hackathon a week ago and the feedback was, it's so easy to develop for your blade. If you know Android, it's just so simple to go and develop. You had a hackathon in the US? Yeah, it was at a local college near us and folks, the winning team, they built a language translation kind of on the fly. So they're able to take IBM Watson, record a sound bite, bring it to the cloud and then bring it back to the glasses and give you the language translation. It's just pretty remarkable. And that was done in 24 hours and it's almost commercial ready. So I'd say it's pretty simple to develop on a platform. I want to have chess master partnership because then I can go in the park, you know, when they have these chess matches and they can tell me what to play so I can be the other guy. Yeah, I think that's, I was actually talking to a guy and I think he's in Finland. He said he's, they're working on a backgammon thing where actually it'll let you, it'll look at the board and actually convert and say, here's the next move you should make based on the glasses and AI agent. So playing games, using glasses for your next move, I think that's all doable and not even in the distant future. And you know, Ted, they have these cool conferences where people come show up and they have TEDx all over the world. If they can kind of like use this for everybody to network better at the trade show. That's another thing, right? Yeah, we actually got one, there's a surgeon out there. He's actually going to be wearing our glasses at several events, including a TED talk in Costa Rica. So, you know, we're still getting out there, we're getting our word out there, but if there's a lot of use cases for this and, you know, people look at the platform and they're like, wow, this is just a great devices, so much I can do with it. So medical, retail, you know, teleprompter, language translation, streaming information in for the DAF. I mean, it's really limitless what can be done. And so hopefully now this is the Mobile Well Congress, the first one where people are not going to be following Apple anymore, and you're going to show, you know, like Google did the Google Glass, which was like a little experiment, but this needs to be a big, big deal and gets to the next level. This is happening hopefully. Yeah, and I think if you look, if you listen to a lot of these companies, Samsung, Apple, they talk about themselves running into services in some ways, so then the cell phones and the adoption that curve is slowly slowing down in some cases negative. So I think, you know, wireless carriers and other folks are looking at 5G and saying, you know, what can I do to bring innovation? And I think smart glasses is certainly going to be a wave of the future and someday it's probably going to replace your phone.