Live from New York: Aspex Eyewear announced at a press conference at Vision Expo East that it will be the exclusive North American manufacturer,seller and distributor of the special frames required for PixelOpics’emPower! electronic lenses to work
The lenses are described as a completely new technology of “electronic”lenses that make it possible to auto-focus for near vision at the exact moment the wearer needs it.
In partnership with Panasonic and Shamir, which will provide laboratories with the software required for creating the emPower! electronic lenses, PixelOptics has developed a system that allows wearers to manually activate and deactivate near-vision focus when they need it with a simple finger swipe on the frame temple. The electronic lens can also be activated by tipping the head slightly downwards (indicating that near vision isrequired), whereas looking straight ahead deactivates that specific lenszone and eliminates the characteristic distortions of a progressive lens.
Transitions Optical Inc. is also working with PixelOptics to create a photochromic version of the emPower lenses.
Aspex spokesperson Bernard Pedoussautconfidently calls this new product a “revolution,” adding that it will do for the optical world what the iPhone did for the telecommunications industry.
The test phase launch is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of this year, with an anticipated market rollout in 2011.