Paul Travers, Vuzix president and CEO, explains how M100 smart glasses have become the business world’s go-to headset

In a post-Google Glass world, do smart glasses still have a place?
I think they are going to replace the phone in the end. For instance, smartphones can help you get from point A to point B, but it’s still a little clumsy. Imagine if you could ask your glasses how to get to the restaurant and it is just painted directions on the street in front of you. The street could light up in orange in the direction that you need to go, just like the first down yard line in an American football game. Another example, with our current glasses is that you can read a menu in a Japanese restaurant and the characters will be translated into English. These are things that will happen through a pair of glasses that you cannot do any other way.

But you don’t believe smart glasses are suitable for everyday users yet?
Vuzix is convinced that until smart glasses can look like a pair of Oakley sunglasses, with that high-fashion look, it is just not going to be that successful in the consumer space. You can’t look like you’ve just stepped off the Starship Enterprise, the technology has got to disappear

However, you have sold M100s to big businesses around the world. What do they use them for? There are all kinds of companies that every time you turn around are doing another really cool thing with it. HP just came out with what they call Visual Remote Guidance. If you’ve got a problem, with anything from a jet engine to large-scale printers and someone doesn’t know how to fix it, tech support can help them do the repairs by watching the video streaming out of the headset. HP can even circle a particular thing in the person’s field of vision and say ‘push that button’ or whatever it might be.

Who is the new Prosumer model aimed at? People who do remote video need a hands free way to record videos, guys that ride bikes that you know need GPS information or want to track what they are doing along the way. It’s for people who are doing kind of ‘out there’ stuff. It’s not necessarily for the average guy

Do you own a pair of M100s yourself and what do you use them for? They are one of my toys that I helped build, so I do own a pair. I work at a desk, so I don’t need to use them all that often, but I like to use them to record things, when I go hiking in the woods with my wife, for instance.