Product Review - Myvu

Interviewer: What is Myvu Tom? Tom Stearns: Myvu makes personal media viewers. Interviewer: Personal media. Tom Stearns: Yeah! Basically you connect this to an iPhone or and iPod and the big screen image of the video you want to watch or the game you're playing is projected right into your eyes. Interviewer: So it looks like you're looking something on a wall. Tom Stearns: Yeah! It’s like a big screen TV resting a few feet away from your face and it’s like your own personal theater. Interviewer: Okay Tom, what's the benefit of something like this? Tom Stearns: Well, the travelers often seating on planes and instead of looking at the little tiny screen, they can seat back, relax and have a completely private viewing experience watching whatever they want and put the ear buds in. You completely engage in whatever you're watching. Interviewer: Obviously its hands free as well. Tom Stearns: Absolutely. Interviewer: How did this come about? Tom Stearns: Well, you know, we’re about a twelve year old company and we started off with military medical application around delivering information to the eye. As the proliferation of the portable media device was coming along, we decided to shift to consumer electronics and here we are today offering a solution really to any consumer at every price point. Interviewer: Tom, what do you call these? Tom Stearns: This is called Myvu Crystal. Interviewer: Myvu Crystal. Tom Stearns: And that’s M-Y-V-U and this is the crystal product. Interviewer: Is it available for retail? Tom Stearns: Yes. You can get this at Best Buy or in Myvu.com right now. Interviewer: How much? Tom Stearns: This is 299.95. Interviewer: How long has it been available? Tom Stearns: It’s been available since last spring and we also have products that start as low as 129. Interviewer: Okay. What kind of response are you getting? Tom Stearns: Great response. We had a fantastic year actually. We grew at a staggering rate. Consumers are really embracing the products and we’re hoping for a great year this year. Interviewer: Are you finding that most of your costumer based is what, people, like you mentioned, traveling and things to that nature? Tom Stearns: Yeah! Interviewer: And watch this on an airplane, in a car. Tom Stearns: Actually, a lot of people are using them on planes, on the commuter rail, although, well, you'll find a lot of people just lay in bed at night and watch TV while their significant other has fallen asleep. Interviewer: Talk to me about the technology involved. Tom Stearns: Sure. Essentially we’re projecting an image through a solid piece of plastic. This is a patented system that we developed over the last ten years and it makes it very light and durable. There are no moving parts here so we’re projecting into the solid piece of plastic. Its light and you could take it with you anywhere. Interviewer: So, any kind of technology infrastructure is involved in this are right here? Tom Stearns: Yes! Basically mounts it over a year and then this is all a piece of plastic, nice and light and comfortable on your face. We want to provide a product to a consumer for every use, so whether you're selling to one who wants to play a game, we’ve got a solution right now for you, later on you're going to be probably going to be a business person sitting on the plane, you want to read your email, you want to look at the spreadsheet that you don’t want other people looking at, we have a solution for that too. Interviewer: You said this came out of a military application. Tom Stearns: Yes. Interviewer: And what was that? Tom Stearns: Well, we used to–tank commanders and field soldiers, they clip on what was called a monocular viewer. It would plug onto the side of their glasses, they could get data about the field. Look over that and they could go about doing the rest of their business. Interviewer: Did somebody had the idea of, “Hey! This has a mainstream application.” Tom Stearns: Absolutely. These were coming around fast and furious and we said, you know what, bring the price done, make it very attractive and we’ve got a huge market here. Interviewer: Tom, who is the innovator who came up with this? Tom Stearns: Well, it was -- and we had a variety of scientist working on the technology over the years. Presently some of the team is behind me, engineers, they're innovating, so more like a team effort, a group of optics experts and engineers. Interviewer: I'm going to view on sir. Tom Stearns: Thank you very much.