Future Features, Technology Trends

A look at the progress and potential of new products in the lens marketplace spurred by the digital processing revolution

By Karlen McLean, ABOC, NCLC and Amy Spiezio

The future of what eyecare practitioners will be able to offer patients involves technology designed to improve vision, comfort, convenience—and even entertainment.

Several particular directions are popping up on the horizon:

1. CONTINUING COMPUTERIZATION. From digitally designed lenses to online forums for frame fans, people are increasingly living in a cyber village, and optical is moving in, too.

2. KEEPING IT PERSONAL. While some may think that technology is impersonal, these days innovators are using cutting edge techniques for very individualized results.

3. GREEN MACHINE. The traditional picture of the future tends to be sleek and treeless, but thanks to serious efforts in manufacturing and retail segments, the smarts of the world are going into keeping the world a green place.

4. SCI-FI REALITY. Some of the things frames and lenses can do today seem straight out of science fiction into the dispensary. In the future, the effects and impact will be even more impressive.

FOCUS ON FUNCTION

One of the most important applications of technology is to make day-to-day living better. Task specific lenses, super functional frames, and other fine-tuned options are making life easier.

In the world of frames, this is most clearly seen by vast improvements in hinge technology, such as Alain Mikli's Bioflex hinge design that is based on the human shoulder. Rotating and completely stretchable eyewear boosts comfort and helps ECPs find precise fits for patients.

Other functional options blend eyewear with other devices, such as zip drives and mp3 players to help reduce the device clutter that is an increasing part of daily life, or removable parts that turn sunglasses into goggles.

In terms of lenses, task-specific lens solutions include anti-fatigue lenses, computer lenses, small-environment lenses, occupation-specific lenses, and lenses for medical conditions such as low vision. Look for more fine-tuned lenses that address unique market segments.

Photochromic technology-driven sunlenses available now will see growth, and AR and/or mirrors as standard sunlens equipment will be de rigeur. Applications driven by R&D and digital/freeform processing will hone usage to specific activities, like sports and leisure. Best performance and protection is the mantra.

Consider patients' lives when offering technical recommendations. Do they take photosensitizing medication? What is their line of work? What sports and leisure activities do they participate in? How many hours a day do they spend on a computer? Lifestyle questions are the backbone of customized dispensing.

GREEN BEHIND THE SCENES

Manufacturers of frames and lenses alike are going green and will continue going greener.

In response to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, The Vision Council released voluntary lead guidelines to its members. Most manufacturers, including equipment manufacturers, are now RoHS (Removal of Hazardous Substance) compliant.

Essilor of America has reduced the environmental footprint of Airwear lens manufacturing by recycling plastic and using 100 percent recyclable water and packaging. New manufacturing practices help eliminate 570,000 pounds of plastic waste per year.

Vision-Ease Lens continues a large green initiative, notably by using 100 percent renewable energy to manufacture lenses at its Ramsey, Minn., facility; reducing plastic use by nearly 35,000 cubic feet since 2008, and recycling 147 tons of cardboard and 685 tons of polycarbonate in 2008.

Frame manufacturers such as LinkSkins and Modo have created collections using recycled materials and encouraging recycling, while REM has created a green headquarters.

Edging equipment has stepped down a green path. Dry-cut edging eliminates the need to dispose of liquid waste materials, while state-of-the-art wet-cut edging systems use less water and feature environmentally friendly filtration systems.

DIGITAL DOMAINS

Digital processing yields digital lens design, which allows lens designers to have a freehand… whatever designers come up with can be produced. This includes advanced single-vision designs, customized PALs, high-wrap sunlenses, and task-specific lenses honed to every task.

"Someone somewhere right now is thinking about a specific lens design for…quilters! And now the technology is available to launch that design tomorrow with a little programming," says one lens manufacturing executive.

An overall trend in customized vision, driven by free-form processing and digital design, fosters lenses that can address demographics according to age, lifestyle, work style, and leisure style. Additionally, each individual wearer's eyes, wearing habits, and frame selection drive customized vision, making each pair of lenses unique solely for the person wearing them, and for the situations they're wearing them in.

While the lens market creates product using digital technology, the frame market is inspired by the digital generation in its product development. Most recently, Gucci's launch of Gucci Eyeweb, a new collection of sunglasses, was designed by Gucci's creative director, Frida Giannini, for Safilo.

The collection is the basis for a microsite at www.guccieyeweb.com. "I designed these sunglasses and the accompanying social networking site with today's digital generation in mind," says Giannini. "It was important for us to speak to these customers in their own language and in their own world. The novelty of this microsite illustrates that perfectly."

INTO THE FUTURE

Affordability and attention to the needs of patients and ECPs alike mark the most creative of the technological advances to come. For example:

SLIDERS: Trufocals, the invention of physicist Dr. Stephen Kurtin, feature lenses that are flexible and firm, with the pocket between lenses holding clear fluid. Pushing the fluid with the slider changes the shape of the flexible lens, which alters the Rx.

The frames must be round to accommodate the Rx. Made of stainless steel alloy with adjustable nose pads and available in one techie design in several colors, bridge widths are custom-manufactured depending on PD.

The lenses "correct most vision conditions," including presbyopia, and are being marketed as a one-pair-does-it-all solution to having to carry, wear and change-out multiple pairs for multiple tasks.

LIQUID LENSES: Atomic physicist Joshua Silver invented liquid-filled optical lenses to produce low-cost, adjustable glasses. His spectacle design relies on the principle that the fatter the lens, the more powerful it becomes. The lenses are filled with liquid, and can be adjusted to different strengths by adding or removing fluid from tiny syringes on each arm, then locked to the right strength.

NANO AR: Chemical engineers at Oregon State University have invented a new technology to deposit "nanostructure films" on various surfaces, which may first find use as anti-glare coatings for eyeglasses.

The technology creates a type of AR nanostructure, and the scientists are working on the application of this thin film to polycarbonate, and plan to create an in-office application unit. EB