Vuzix Corp. wins contract to develop Personnel Tracking System for U.S. Army

Posted by Courtney E. Howard

ROCHESTER, N.Y., 24 Sept. 2010. Vuzix Corp. won a $643,000 contract through July 2011 from the U.S. Army's Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) to design a wearable computing system that will enable command units to have precise positioning information on soldiers in areas where a global positioning system (GPS) is not operable.

As part of this effort, Vuzix will develop a see-through, transmissive display engine upgrade for the TAC-EYE LT head-mounted display, providing commanders an augmented view of the battlespace.

The upgraded system is expected to provide Operators with a reliable sensor package for use in GPS challenged areas. Dismounted soldiers frequently operate in GPS-denied or GPS-corrupted environments and often need to have a very accurate position fix for situational awareness software and systems to work. A typical requirement in the field is for an absolute position to be known to one meter, thus enabling software to help resolve where the soldier (or a sensed threat) is within a building or area.