Satuday I had an impromptu meeting with the folks over at Vuzix. In my search for a bit of FPSLabs content, I ran across the their company's name and remembered that they had sent me an email before the show that spoke of a personal viewing environment that was great for simulating a 62" screen at a 9 foot distance. This email did not speak of gaming, but when I wandered by their booth it was clear they were aiming at our market, as was apparent from the long lines to play games with the equipment. They had flight simulators, driving simulators, and first person shooter simulators. Of course, I wanted to speak to the makers of such a product and see if we couldn't get our hands on it. Surely, anything that produces the look I saw on the visitor's faces had to be worthy of an FPSLabs review.

I stopped by the booth to inquire about who we should talk to regarding the product and somebody who spoke english came to greet me and invite me inside. Some of you may have read our review of the eMagin Z800 3DVisor. Now, we can't say for certain whether this product is better, but the specs are very impressive with a weight of only 3 ounces, wears like glasses, removable speakers, built-in microphone, USB Powered (no external power cable), and two 640x480 pixel displays that can generate up to a 1024x768 resolution when combined. This is fantastic, the eMagin Z800 3DVisor had similar features, but it required this hub looking thing that also required its own power supply. The Vuzix appears to only use a straight up cable to the laptop or desktop PC and requires one USB connection and a VGA connection. Nothing else is necessary from what I saw other than installing the drivers. I can't say much more than that until we are able to test one more directly.


I am curious to have one in the lab to test directly against the Z800 and see if the reduced size, weight, and equipment of the Vuzix makes it a better performer. To be honest, when I played with it at the show, I was pretty impressed. Without more time to sit with it I can't give it a true analysis, but my initial impressions were really positive. You check out the Vuzix line at Vuzix.com.