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Vidyo is bringing its cloud-based video conferencing capabilities to smart eyewear.
Company officials on March 9 announced a new solution that enables VidyoWorks high-definition collaboration software on smart glasses. Vidyo is making VidyoWorks mobile client APIs available to developers creating applications for smart glasses who want to embed real-time video, audio and content collaboration in their software.
Device maker Vuzix is the first to feature Vidyo’s VidyoWorks on smart glasses. The company will offer it on its enterprise-grade Vuzix M100 smart glasses, and the two companies will demonstrate the technology on the wearable device during the Enterprise Connect 2015 show, which starts March 16 in Orlando, Fla.
VidyoWorks on smart eyewear will open up new markets for developers for hands-free, “see-what-I-see” applications in such areas as health care, retail, energy and government, according to Vidyo CEO Eran Westman.
“There is a tremendous market opportunity for these applications with augmented reality and VidyoWorks delivers reliability and scale over wireless networks,” Westman said in a statement.
The new offering brings together the changing video conferencing space with the fast-growing wearable device market. The video collaboration space is undergoing a transition in which sales of hardware-based systems—such as telepresence offerings—are giving way to software- and cloud-based solutions, such as Vidyo’s. Established vendors like Cisco Systems, Polycom, Avaya and LifeSize Communications are building out their own software- and cloud-based offerings, while Vidyo and other smaller startups—such as Blue Jeans Network and Zoom Communications—are gaining traction with their solutions.
Revenues for video conferencing equipment fell 7.7 percent in the third quarter 2014, compared with the same period the year before, according to IDC analysts. Software and the cloud continue to play a larger role in video conferencing as a more mobile workforce continues to demand solutions that enable them to collaborate wherever they are and on whatever device they choose, from smartphones to tablets to desktop and notebook PCs.
That increasingly will include wearable devices, such as smart glasses and watches, a market that ABI Research analysts predict will grow to $18 billion by 2019. Vidyo officials said video conferencing capabilities on smart eyewear will have multiple uses, such as giving workers a look at what colleagues are seeing and doing at remote sites. In addition, the video can be recorded for playback in the future via Vidyo’s VidyoReplay technology.
The company’s VidyoWorks also includes the company’s dynamic adaptation technology that enables it work over disparate wireless networks. In addition, the VidyoWorks platform enables smart glass users to connect to video conferences with people using an array of systems, from smartphones and tablets to PCs, conferencing systems and unified communications clients.
The news of the VidyoWorks for smart glasses solution comes a week after Vidyo and Samsung announced at the Mobile World Congress 2015 show that Vidyo’s VidyoMobile app will be featured for Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S6 smartphone. The application will be featured in Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store, according to Vidyo officials.