Microvision Awarded $3.2 Million Contract by U.S. Air Force to Advance Development of Lightweight, See-Through Color Eyewear Display

Microvision Awarded $3.2 Million Contract by U.S. Air Force to Advance Development of Lightweight, See-Through Color Eyewear Display

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microvision, Inc. (Nasdaq:MVIS), the leader in light scanning technologies for display and imaging products, announced today that it has been awarded a $3.2 million contract by the U.S. Air Force, to provide a lightweight, see-through, full-color eyewear display prototype to the Government. This new effort leverages Microvision’s unique light scanning display technology and is expected to further Microvision’s color eyewear development program. The contract, which continues a development activity with the Air Force, specifies the development, design, verification, testing, and delivery of a lightweight, see-through full-color wearable display for evaluation by several DoD project offices.

Under the new contract, Microvision will combine the Company’s proprietary, newly designed ultra-thin optical assembly with its tiny laser projection engine, PicoPTM, to produce an advanced prototype of the desired solution. The display system resulting from this combination is expected to be significantly smaller and lighter than any existing display that meets the military’s required system performance. Microvision believes that the resulting small and ergonomic display solution within the form factor of protective eyewear or high-fashion sunglasses could enable soldiers to access full-color tactical and strategic information in a secure and hands-free fashion without excess volume and weight imposed by current wearable display technologies.

“In 2006, various branches of U.S. Government have clearly articulated the need for a display solution that can dramatically enhance soldiers’ safety, situational awareness and mission effectiveness without the common “side effects” associated with today’s HMD technologies: lack of see-through capabilities, excessive weight and bulk, poor ergonomics and lack of ease-of-use,” stated Alexander Tokman, Microvision President and CEO. “We’ve responded, by focusing our unique display technology on solving this problem, and we believe that the Government investment in this display effort will result in powerful display capabilities for U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen.

“Our color eyewear solution is expected to dramatically enhance soldiers’ safety, situational awareness and mission effectiveness without compromising usability and comfort. Both, the color eyewear and our rapidly progressing helmet-mounted display platforms are expected to form a robust portfolio of wearable display products that provide unique capabilities for a variety of demanding operational environments,” continued Tokman. “This development effort is well in line with our strategic products roadmap, and is expected to accelerate the availability of color eyewear in military, consumer, industrial, and medical markets.”

About Microvision

Microvision provides a display technology platform to enable next-generation display and imaging products for pico projectors, vehicle displays, and wearable displays that interface to mobile devices. The company also manufactures and sells its bar code scanner product line which features the company’s proprietary MEMS technology.

Forward-Looking Statement

Certain statements contained in this release, including those relating to product development, potential product benefits, and statements using words such as “expect,” “expected,” “could” and "believe," are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the company's forward-looking statements include the following: capital market risks, our ability to raise additional capital when needed; market acceptance of our technologies and products; our financial and technical resources relative to those of our competitors; our ability to keep up with rapid technological change; our dependence on the defense industry and a limited number of government development contracts; government regulation of our technologies; our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary technologies; the ability to obtain additional contract awards; the timing of commercial product launches and delays in product development; the ability to achieve key technical milestones in key products; dependence on third parties to develop, manufacture, sell and market our products; potential product liability claims, risks related to Lumera's business and the market for its equity and other risk factors identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports and other filings, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC. Except as expressly required by the federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, changes in circumstances or any other reason.