Avegant taps former Apple Executive Richard Kerris for CMO position at Glyph Launch

Avegant also revealed today that Richard Kerris, former Apple Executive and Lucasfilm CTO, has joined the company as Chief Marketing Officer. At Lucasfilm, Kerris managed the technical teams that are responsible for the technology behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones and many other breakthrough films from the studio, which Disney is now the proud owner of. Kerris is an active member of the Visual Effects Society.

Avegant introduces The Glyph

In early 2014, Avegant ran a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for their Mobile Personal Theater known as The Glyph. Avegant surpassed their goals to make 6 times what they originally asked for to create this unique visual device. As The Glyph developed Avegant was good about keeping their “Founders” who originally helped fund the device informed. Today, the dream becomes a visual reality.

Avegant announced today the availability of the Glyph. It is a lightweight portable set of premium headphones that can be worn over your eyes to reveal a screen-less display inside the headband.

The Glyph, Personal Theater by Avegant (Courtesy of Avegant) All Rights Reserved.

Avegant is shipping custom engraved Founder’s Edition to it’s Kickstarter campaign backers first before filling preorders throughout the first quarter for an estimated 10,000 units. The product will be available in the U.S. and China.

A Personal Mobile Theater Experience

“The Glyph pioneers a truly unique personal theater experience that delivers crystal-clear images, without a traditional screen, and projects it safely onto the retina,” said Avegant CEO Joerg Tewes. “We are excited to begin shipping the first version of this groundbreaking product to our Kickstarter community. The support and feedback of our Kickstarter founders has been, and will continue to be, absolutely essential to the success in the evolution of this product.”

Avegant’s patented Retinal Technology is the world’s most advanced viewing technology for commercial wearable displays. It uses this technology to recreate natural sight to deliver ultra high quality, pixel-less images. It uses a lower powered LED that beams the content through its patented optical architecture onto two million microscopic mirrors, which shape and focus the picture safely onto the retina.

“The Glyph is distinctly not VR, yet you can completely enjoy the feeling of an immersive experience without shutting out the rest of the world around you,” Tewes continued. “Glyph is a personal media device providing users the ability to enjoy long-form content, be it 2D or 3D, in rich detail, with amazing studio-quality sound and support for head tracking and surround sound, which can be experienced using base line video playback apps, or, for a fuller experience, the JauntVR player.”

How The Glyph Works

The Glyph plugs into any HDMI device and delivers a ‘plug and play” personal theater experience using existing content, giving the viewers the opportunity to view their personal media (movies, games, television shows) sitting anywhere they are comfortable to give the viewer the experience of having the best seat in a movie or home theater.

Additonal feature of the Glyph include:

• Spatial Awareness: The Glyph allows peripheral vision above and below the image, allowing consumers to experience any type of media, including immersive 360-degree content and side-by-side 3D, without giving up their own spatial awareness.
• Long-term viewing comfort: The Glyph’s imaging technology with low latency eliminates eyestrain, headaches and the physical discomforts often associated with screen viewing.
• Perspective: The Glyph can adjust to a variety of prescriptions supporting near- and far-sightedness, to deliver optimal image quality and an effortless, personalized viewing experience.
• Pre-orders of the Glyph are $599 and will have a retail price of $699 on store shelves and online at the time of shipping. The Glyph will be available initially at www.avegant.com followed by amazon.com in early 2016.

“The team at Avegant and the innovation behind the Glyph are some of the most exciting things I’ve seen in my career,” said Kerris. “I’m thrilled to be joining this team and to be a part of something that will revolutionize how we experience all kinds of media on the go, from existing audio and video to interactive and immersive 3D content.”

Avegant launched a new website [www.avegant.com] featuring videos about the Glyph and how the technology works. There is an online store available for online orders. Avegant will be demonstrating the Glyph at South Hall 2 (booth #26033 LVCC), at CES Las Vegas from January 6-10, 2016.

Architosh Analysis

The Glyph is a personal theater that fulfills a market for how people want to view visual multimedia content, much more immersive then viewing on a mobile device. The Glyph is giving the viewer a personal experience to feel like they are in a movie theater. The Glyph plugs into an HDMI supported device giving you a wide range of products to use it with. The Glyph lets you see above and below your visual field so you can orient yourself and not lose spatial awareness.

Imagine pitching an idea to a client using this immersive media headset that gives the experience of a theatrical presentation. Imagine walking through an architectural rendering that you can watch on the Glyph. Video gamers will love streaming video games from anywhere to watch on a Glyph, and feeling like they are playing on a personal movie screen. Imagine people sitting on the plane with Glyphs instead of ear buds. You are seeing content like you never did before. It is safe, and won’t hurt your eyes.

Richard Kerris will be a great asset to Avegant with his experience in the creative industry. Richard knows the markets with a wide range of professionals in the entertainment industry that would be early adopters of The Glyph—including visual effects, animation, and video game professionals. His deep knowledge of the 3d and visual effects markets as well as his in-depth developer relations base will no doubt be a prime asset to helping the new company optimally position the Glyph for success.