Innovega develops contact lens for near-eye displays

Innovega Inc. announced the development of iOptik technology to manage vergence-accommodation conflict that causes discomfort and visual fatigue when using near-eye displays.

“Resolving the vergence-accommodation conflict is known to reduce the time required to identify 3D stimuli, improve stereoacuity with fast frame rates, reduce distortions in perceived depth and reduce viewer fatigue and discomfort,” Jerome Legerton, OD, MS, MBA, FAAO, Innovega co-founder, chief clinical and regulatory officer and technology co-inventor, said in a press release from the company.

“We are pleased to reach the stage where we can describe and demonstrate the continuous depth of field of our iOptik contact lens-enabled wearable display optics,” said Legerton, who is also a Primary Care Optometry News Editorial Board member

This conflict, according to the release, occurs when 3D depth cues presented by a stereo 3D display, or the real world, stimulate the eyes to focus at distances that are different from the fixed distance at which the static display panel is focused.

PCON corresponded with Legerton regarding the function of the new iOptik technology as well as its projected launch.

“The Innovega iOptik contact lens provides two optical paths. One is a normal distance vision prescription with a light-polarizing filter that blocks the polarized near-eye display light while passing real-world light in the same manner as polarized sunglasses. The second path is a central microlens that focuses and passes the display light in the eMacula display glasses,” Legerton told PCON. “The microlens surrounded by the cross polarization becomes a small aperture and acts like a pinhole in addition to having the power to focus images in the spectacle plane display. The small aperture provides the depth of focus that inherently solves the vergence accommodation conflict that causes eyestrain with other near eye display optical systems. Unlike other optical systems, the eyes are free to converge and accommodate with 3D images without losing focus on the fixed location display.”

Further description and demonstration of the new iOptik lenses are in a white paper, available on Innovega’s website. Authors of the white paper are Mark Freeman, PhD, who serves as the Innovega research and development team’s director of opto-electronics and photonics, and Jay Marsh, MSME, Innovega vice president of engineering.

“We forecast commercial release in 2020,” Legerton said. “The iOptik contact lens is a medical device and requires FDA market clearance. Innovega is now in the clinical phase of development, and the FDA clinical investigation will commence enrollment in a few months.”