Although wearable technology is small, portable and personal, it made an outsized impression at this year's International CES, the annual consumer electronics show held each January in Las Vegas. Amid acres of oversized curved screen monitors, smart cars and internet-connected home appliances, wearable devices—notably eyewear—drew the attention of many of the show's 150,000-plus attendees, many of them savvy, tech industry veterans.
The variety of tech-enabled eyewear on display was impressive, ranging from augmented reality glasses with heads-up displays designed for everyday use to immersive virtual reality goggles meant for gaming and movies to eye tracking systems that detect precisely what the wearer is seeing. Eye² editor Andrew Karp scouted the CES exhibit halls for the most interesting eyewear technology. Here's his personal guided tour of the show.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Avegant's Ed Tang holds the latest version of the Glyph, an ingenious, two-in-one device that combines high-quality headphones with a 3D retinal display optimized for gaming and watching movies.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Matt Tymowski and Maciej Bielicki showed Bawsome, a line of 3D-printed eyeglass frames that can be customized with the wearer's name or a brief message.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Vincent Dieulesaint of Ticatag with Teou, an eyeglass frame with built-in iBeacons that help you locate your glasses using a smartphone app.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Erin Hildreth of The Vision Council (right) tells an attendee how to protect their eyes from digital vision syndrome. The Council made news at CES, and beyond, with its new report "Hindsight is 20/20/20: Protect Your Eyes from Digital Devices."
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Every major consumer electronics company showed its new curved monitors. Some claimed the shape is easier to view because of the curvature of the human eye.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Geco is a lightweight action camera that can attach to any pair of eyeglasses.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
This year, the Digital Health Zone occupied much of the Sands Convention Center, the same site where International Vision Expo West is held every fall.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Intel is moving quickly into wearables. The microchip giant recently invested $24.9 million in Vuzix and has acquired Composyt Light Labs. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich introduced Oakley CEO Colin Baden during his keynote speech at CES. Luxottica and Intel recently announced a research partnership and at CES, the two made it known that Oakley would be the first Luxottica brand to launch an "intelligent product," designed to enhance athletes' performance, later this year.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Tadashi Shimizu of Japanese optical retailer Jins shows an app that displays the blink rate and other biometric measurements of a person wearing the company's sensor-equipped Jins Meme eyewear.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
A close-up look at Jins Meme.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Eye² editor Andrew Karp tries out a prototype of Toshiba Glass, a soon-to-be-released smart glass that uses the lens to display data and images.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Google co-founder Sergei Brin stopped by the Epson booth to try out Epson Moverio BT-200 smart glasses. He was reportedly impressed with their performance. (Photo courtesy of Tim Moore, Rochester Optical)
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Addison Caci models a diving goggle from Liquid Image equipped with a high definition video camera.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Luminette light therapy glasses by Lucimed is designed to alleviate the effects of seasonal affective disorder, jet lag and other conditions caused by blue light imbalance.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Kelly Olsen sports a pair of Lyte sunglasses with a built-in, high definition video camera.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
The Oculus Rift, an immersive 3D virtual reality goggle, was one of the most popular attractions at CES.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
ODG, which previously has concentrated on designing smart glasses for the military, debuted a new line of consumer products.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
A consumer version of Optinvent's smart glasses, featuring the company's proprietary display in the right eye.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
An attendee experiencing Samsung Gear, which features a 3D display designed by Oculus.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Six15, which specializes in making electronics for military use, showed how its heads-up displays can be used for consumer eyewear. Note the display behind the right lens.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
A prototype of Sony's compact, lightweight single-lens display module with OLED technology. When attached to an eyeglass frame, it turns the eyewear into a smart device capable of displaying visual information.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
This CES attendee, who was outfitted with head-mounted GoPro camera and a Ricoh 360-degree camera, tries out a prototype of Sony's new attachable display module.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Tobii's Joanna Fiedler wears the company's new EyeX eye tracking system while explaining its features to an attendee.
Eyewear Tech at CES 2015 »
Toyota's new hydrogen-powered Mirai was among the most groundbreaking new automobile technologies that were previewed at CES. The energy efficient car will be launched in 2016, according to Toyota.
Click here for more from this issue of VM's Eye².