Standing on the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show yesterday, I saw a mass of lanyard-yoked electronics industry workers struggling to make sense of an event boasting 150,000 attendees and 200,000 new products. But when I shifted my attention to the gadget clipped to my right ear, I saw a neat line of app shortcuts on a tiny digital display in front of my right eye. I flipped my attention between the two sights a few times—something I found surprisingly easy—and wondered whether this would soon be normal.

I was trying out a wearable display called the M100, made by Vuzix, a small company that has for some years made such displays for the defense industry. Vuzix, which is based in Rochester, New York, announced the device in November (see “Google’s Glass Gets a Competitor”); it sounded as if it would be similar to Google’s prototype wearable display