Adjustable focus eye wear comes to market

Manufacturers are now offering accommodating spectacle lenses for presbyopes.

PixelOptics glasses

PixelOptics has developed glasses that combine an electronic lens and an electronically enabled frame with a touch-sensitive control module in the frame’s temple, according to Clay Musslewhite, PixelOptics director of marketing.

The emPower lens is embedded with a liquid crystal electronic reading area. The three focusing modes of emPower lenses are activated by touching the temple of the frame once, which turns reading power on or off. Users select from near, distance or midrange vision using the touch-sensitive controls inside the frame, Mr. Musslewhite told Primary Care Optometry News.

The PixelOptics emPower lens is embedded with a liquid crystal electronic reading area. Wearers adjust vision by using the touch-sensitive controls inside the frame. Image: Musslewhite C In the SuperFocus glasses, wearers create a reading addition by sliding a knob on the bridge to compress the optical fluid and extend the flexible membrane lens. Image: Koppes A

The glasses’ automatic mode is activated by swiping across the temple of the frame. In this mode, the electronic reading zone turns on automatically when the user tilts his or her head down.

“We use a sophisticated tilt switch called a microaccelerometer,” Ronald D. Blum, OD, president of PixelOptics, previously told PCON. “If the patient is looking far, the eyeglasses know that they are looking into the distance. If the patient looks down, the tilt switch senses that the eyes are tilting and it automatically switches the lens to a reading prescription.”

This technology is intended for all eyeglass wearers older than 40 years, especially those currently using progressive lenses, Mr. Musslewhite said.

The electronic lenses are equipped with features such as a thin transparent layer like a liquid crystal display screen and a nano-rechargeable battery hidden inside the frame, Mr. Musslewhite said, explaining that the new glasses represent more than 11 years of research and development.

Though the technology was presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011, PixelOptics glasses are not yet commercially available. The company will begin rolling distribution in the southeastern U.S. during the second quarter of 2011, Mr. Musslewhite said.

The new eye wear will eventually be available in a variety of shapes, styles and materials, including acetate, metal, full-frame, semi-rimless and rimless, he said.

SuperFocus glasses

Adrian Koppes, chief executive officer and co-founder of SuperFocus LLC, has been working to commercialize eyeglasses with a dynamic focusing system comprising two lenses: a rigid single vision prescription lens and a flexible membrane lens that allows users to change vision correction as needed.

A layer of silicone oil-based optically clear fluid is sealed inside the flexible membrane lens, which shifts to control the power of the dual lens system, Mr. Koppes told PCON.

By sliding a small knob on the bridge to the left or right, the optical fluid is compressed, distending the flexible membrane lens to create add power through the entire field of view, Mr. Koppes said.

The lens can be adjusted from 0 to 2.75 D, allowing the user to focus at any distance, he said.

The flexible lens mimics the accommodation of the natural lens in the eye, bringing the focal length of the system “from infinity to reading distance and anywhere in between,” Mr. Koppes said.

He noted that the ideal user is anyone older than 45 who needs distance vision correction.

SuperFocus, previously known as TruFocals until a rebrand in October 2010, currently offers two frame styles in a variety of colors, though all the lenses are circular to ensure perfect focus with the technology, Mr. Koppes said. Tinted lenses are also available, he said.

The glasses were initially made commercially available in August 2009, in deliberately small batches to control quality and demand, Mr. Koppes said.

“We needed to develop glasses light enough to wear full time, rugged enough to withstand the treatment that glasses get and able to adjust the focal length in the blink of an eye,” Mr. Koppes said. “This has been tremendously challenging.”

The company will now begin advertising more aggressively through national TV campaigns and expanding distribution across the U.S. and Canada, he said. – by Alexandra Harcharek

• Ronald D. Blum, OD, is CEO and president of PixelOptics. He can be reached at (877) 725-3447; rblum@pixeloptics.com; www.pixeloptics.com.
• Adrian Koppes is CEO and founder of SuperFocus. He can be reached at (818) 785-7778; akoppes@superfocus.com; www.superfocus.com.
• Clay Musslewhite is director of marketing for PixelOptics and can be reached at (540) 567-5079; cmusslewhite@pixeloptics.com.