EaseVision.com – News and gossips of vision care and optical industry

Essex Woodlands Health Ventures invested the 2007-startup QSpex 12 million dollars at the end of 2009. This is an amazing new technology enabling the optical stores to finish casting the lenses for the eyeglasses in 30 minutes. According to the in introduction on its website, the in-house lenses making machine is able to make Anti-glare, photochromic, polarized lenses in one integrated process. The surface quality of the lenses can be comparable with the lab-ground lenses, with accurate and precise prescription acuity. And it requires no special skills for the operators. It is heard recently QSpex finialized another round of capital financing from GE. All these venture capitals help to commercialize the patented technology and bring the novelty technology lenses to final users. QSpex plans to test the market in the southeast before the end of 2010, and then rollout through the country in the coming 3 years.

QSpex will market its lenses through the independent doctor’s offices, and then spread though national chain stores. This new tech will greatly the increase the profitability and efficiency of the independent stores.

The major members of the QSpex team are with perfect background in the industry of eye-care products. Stephen M. Martin, the CEO of QSpex Technologies. Is a veteran contact lens manufacturing executive, and he founded Ciba Vision in 1980 and Ciba Vision Ophthalmics in 1990. Dr. Kai Su, originally from Taiwan China, is the founder, Chairman and CSO of QSpex.

Dr. Kai Su’s (PHD) background is particularly worth mentioning. He Founded QSpex Technologies Inc., and serves as its Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Su has been in the vision care industry for over three decades and is an expert in the field of polymer chemistry. Before QSpex, he was the President & CEO of Technology Resources International (TRI). Before this, Dr. Su spent 21 years leading research and development groups at Ciba Vision, Alcon Laboratories and Bausch & Lomb. During all these years, Dr. Su has invented over 100 eye care patented products and published many scientific papers in the area. Dr. Su’s the technologies have been used in a number of successful vision care products, such as Alcon’s Opti-Clean contact lens cleaning solutions and Softcolors line of colored contacts lenses within the CIBA brand. In 1996, he was awarded the Contact Lens Manufacturers Association Trailblazer Award for his excellent achievement in product development to the enhancement of the industry. Dr. Su gained his Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in New York, and owned a BS in chemistry from Taiwan’s Tamkang University before he came to United States to further his study.

This new technology, if proves to be workable soon, will surely transform and reshape the business model of the optical industry, and this will greatly impact the current participators, especially in the eyeglasses lens manufacturing industry.

From: Yahoo Finance

Writer of Wall Street Journal Brett Arends recently appugns the high-priced sunglasses and eyeglasses in the high-end optical stores. The argument is around whether these fancy eyewear is worth that much except the names and logos that are bearing on the frames. Considering the major function of a pair of eyewear, general consumers need to make a smarter decision. In this articles, the author includes lots of quotes from experts like ophthalmologists and optometrists.

Are designers worth that much? Maybe not. For starters, most shades are made by the same company. Here’s what you need to know before buying.

1. Most sunglasses are made by the same company. Do you prefer the “quality” of Ray-Ban to Oakley? Do you think Bulgari is better than Dolce & Gabbana, or Salvatore Ferragamo is better than Prada? Wake up. They’re all made by one company, Italian manufacturer Luxottica (NYSE) — one of the biggest consumer companies that consumers have never heard of. Luxottica also makes sunglasses branded Burberry, Chanel, Polo Ralph Lauren, Paul Smith, Stella McCartney, Tiffany, Versace, Vogue, Persol, Miu Miu, Tory Burch and Donna Karan.

“We manufacture about 70% of those brands in our factories in Italy, and the balance in America and China,” says Luxottica spokesman Luca Biondolillo. “We do the design, the manufacturing, and the marketing,” he adds. The company makes most of those brands under license, working closely with designers at the relevant fashion houses. But it owns several brands itself, including Ray-Ban, Oakley, Oliver Peoples and REVO.

2. In many cases, the same company is also selling you the glasses. Luxottica also owns LensCrafters, Pearle Vision and Sunglass Hut. This is extreme vertical integration. The eye doctor telling you that you need a new pair of glasses, the sales people helping you choose them, and the people who design and make the glasses all work for the same company. Make of it what you will. But if your financial advisor was actually employed by the mutual fund company that he recommended for your portfolio, you’d at least want to know.

3.The markups are as big as they seem. Whenever I have bought a new pair of regular eyeglasses, I have always reflected on how little I seem to get for my money. I can sort of understand why lenses are so expensive, as the material has to be made and ground precisely. But $100 or $200 for frames? These are bits of metal or molded plastic. Once I bought tiny slivers of hollow titanium that weighed considerably less than the bills I was handing over.

The cost of a new pair of glasses will of course reflect materials and labor. But the price will also reflect brand values and marketing — and how much consumers will pay. Luxottica says it makes a gross profit of 64 cents on each dollar of sales. Even after deducting sales and advertising costs, overhead, and brand licensing royalties, it’s still making 52 cents. That’s some margin.

While the company’s return on equity has fallen since the global economy turned down, last year it still managed a respectable 11%, according to data from FactSet Research Systems. A few years ago that number was as high as 20%. And investors are confident on the company’s future. The stock has jumped from $13 to $25 from last year’s market lows. It’s about 20 times likely earnings, an optimistic rating.

4. Those expensive sunglasses may not be any better for your eyes, either. “Three-hundred dollar sunglasses don’t do anything better than $100 sunglasses, except maybe look better and have a brand name associated with them,” says Dr. Jay Duker, chair of ophthalmology at Tufts Medical Center.

“A significant chunk of what you pay for isn’t the quality of the lenses, it’s the brand,” adds Dr. Reza Dana, director of the cornea and refractive surgery service at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. He notes that making lenses that offer protection against harmful ultra-violet rays “isn’t very expensive technology.” And while spending more may get you better quality frames, here, too, there are laws of diminishing returns.

For about $40, says Dr. Duker, you can get a pair that offers 100% protection against ultra-violet rays. If you spend maybe $70, you should be able to get a pair with decent quality polarizing lenses that cut out glare. Beyond that, the medical benefits tail off pretty fast.

5. An inexpensive pair of sunglasses from the pharmacy isn’t the worst thing in the world. They may be fine for most people in most circumstances, Dr. Dana says. “The main reason people wear sunglasses is to block out (regular) white light,” he says, “and from that point of view, cheaper glasses work pretty well.” And they will probably block most UV rays, even if not all of them, he adds.

6. Those fancy glasses are really costing you a lot more than you realize. If you make your shades last for many years, that would be one thing. But who does that? The people who want designer items want the latest fashion each year. And then there are the pairs that get lost. Scratched at the beach. And sat on. Personally, I have come to consider sunglasses a disposable item, and I suspect I am not alone.

Over a lifetime these things add up. Indeed they compound. Even at, say, 4% interest, $200 a year over 50 years adds up to $30,000.

If $30,000 really do good to our eye health, it is still worth. All in all, after above analysis, it is surely not worth. Now people can buy cheap yet brand name sunglasses at FramesDirect.com at half price or even lower, of course the quality is 100% secured and guaranteed. So why buying $500 fancy sunglasses again? Going online maybe will be the best answer. Many of the onliners are selling accurate custom-made prescription sunglasses at a fraction of $500.

Contact the author of WSJ Brett Arends at brett.arends@wsj.com

Bausch & Lomb is recalling a number of lots of its ReNu Multi-Purpose Solution and ReNu MultiPlus MPS in Europe and other countries.

B+L explained that the recall does not necessarily mean safety and efficacy problems. After routine test by the company, it is found the recalled batches are safe and effective if used as instucted, but it does not meet the expectations of quality control process of B+L. This shows B+L is a responsible company.

Though there were no reports about the adverse effects from above recalled solutions, the stability monitor programme aims to eliminate any possible problems that may occur months later.

B+L also stated that they are going to withdraw a single batch of (AA120) of 120ml ReNu MultiPlus MPS in Croatia, Dubai, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. This only represents 0.1% of the batch. B+L has informed the eyeglasses retailers and eye care providers the specific steps to return these batches.

In the history,  B+L recalled ReNu MoistureLoc in May 2006. The reason for the recall was its formulation. It was found that its formation, if combined with certain use patterns, will likely to cause an increased risk of eye disease of fusarium keratitis.

Headquartered in Ramsey, Minn., Vision-Ease Lens on June 15 announced the launch of online portal facilitating ECP to order stock lenses online through Vision-Ease website. There are instructions of how to get to start to order.

Before the online facility was launched, independent opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists used to order lenses from Vision-Ease via telephone and fax. This new portal allows ECP to arrange their inventory of stock lenses simply with a click of button in the screen.

In addition to its own company website, ECPs can also order VEL’s lenses via another earlier centralized VisionWeb. ECPs can simply add Vision-Ease as the new supplier and place orders via VisionWeb, which was used by eye care providers to order spectacles lenses, contact lenses and frames from various vision products suppliers.

The two online portals help professionals to greatly streamline the process of buying stock lenses, offer the best possible customer service to its customers, said Barry Resnik, director of marketing, Vision-Ease Lens.

Here is the new thread I publish in OptiBoard.com.

I guess this article “Greedy Optometrists Don’t Like Competition” will make most of the professionals jump up and scream out. To be fair, as a one year OptiBoarder since my first show-up last September, I would like to say optometrists are not greedy, they are just helpless and angry facing the tidy wave of online deregulation and increasing share of online businesses.

On the surface, it seems that the local optical stores are making crazy money on selling prescription eyeglasses, but in fact all the optical stores are only making fair and reasonable markup comparing with all other professions in the United States. The reason why brick and mortar stores are charging hundreds of dollars for a pair of eyeglasses is due to the extreme in-efficiency and very small amount of customer traffic and daily order quantity. We know all the professionals need to live a decent life by choosing optical as their career. So optometrists are not greedy at all.

Of course nobody loves competition, but nobody can evade competition, on the contrary we need to embrace it. And we also need to get prepared for possible future advancements. OptiBoarders all hate those onliners, but actually do not have intimate and direct experience with online glasses. I hope some of us here to have an experience soonest.

To enable you to have this chance, I would like to offer certain quantity of Free RX eyeglasses to people in this forum (I also pay for the courier charge, 3-7 days for most of US cities). Better use your own RX or family members’ of friends’. One pair for each, at the value of USD50 roughly. Any interesting professionals can send me private message(frame#, frame color, RX info etc). You may negatively or positively comment after you receive the eyeglasses.

Thanks.

With the help from MIT professor Steve Mann, who is an expert of cyborg technology (a tech that blends natural and artificial system), Rob Spence from Toronto replaces his right eye with a miniature video camera. This camera is not connected to the brain (this is a much more complicated tech), therefore this could not help restore the vision of his lost eye, it only helps recording the conversations with other people without letting other people notice they are being recorded.

Rob Spence is a 36-year-old film maker in Toronto Canada. He lost his right eye during a shooting accident when he was only a child on his grandfather’s farm. He has been thinking of installing a mini camera in his fake eye for a couple of years. He finished the first prototype last year, which was named by a magazine as one of the biggest invention of 2009. And Rob is proud to call himself Eyeborg Guy.

The weird device is a wireless electronic equipment with the function of recording video, and can record exactly as Rob sees. The present version is pretty initial, and the resolution of the image is not clear still. But as Rob explained, they are working on a better version with higher resolution and more powerful transmitting capability.

According to what Rob said, this device aims to recording the most natural conversation and most natural behavior of people, which will normally be distorted when facing a hand-held camera or video camera.

Rob has the second version of his false eye, which is a red LED light. This exactly looks like the robot from the film Terminator.

Eyeglasses or spectacles aren’t merely the components which offer aid to people’s vision however they are also the best ways to make a fashion declaration. Truly possessing the most exceptional pair of eyeglasses is a must for many individuals. You will find there’s vast range of men’s eyeglasses and women’s eyeglasses advertised by different world renowned eyeglass brands. You could discover a complete array of sunglasses and eyeglasses from Ray Ban. Ray Ban Eyeglasses have turn into a synonym of excellence eyewear in the course of the previous decades. Their brand name draws attention of designing-conscious purchasers.

Offering a huge array of the optical eyewear, Ray-Ban eyeglasses always offer something special for everybody. Having strong charisma in eyeglasses and sunglasses industry, this manufacturer remains updating their product series according to fashion trends. With fashion altering every day, designing components and elements are continually being explored for keeping up with the most up-to-date designs and fashion trend. When you are purchasing your Ray Ban eyeglasses you could be guaranteed regarding the superiority of designer glasses, at most reasonable prices.

Bigger Ray-ban eyeglasses model RX 6121 have an amazingly sleek look, proffered in 2 colors 2502-Gunmetal (Transparent) and also 2511-Brown (Transparent), obtainable in various sizes and styles. Likewise diversity styles and colors are available for Ray Ban RX 8613. These glasses are obtainable at all reputed and dependable dealers. You might order your pair with an web dealer with just one or two clicks. When you are paying for your eyewear don’t forget to overlook and check the certificate of authenticity and make certain you are paying for a 100% from the brand owner.

A Ray Ban brand reflects top quality and also dependability. As a design-loving individual you’ll probably love Ray Ban for its brand name value, and Ray Ban has been experiencing growth in field of eyeglasses industry. Normally a branded sunglasses or eyeglasses can provide you with a sense of self-assurance and comfort as well as it will turn into an indivisible part of your persona.

The best advice in buying some eyeglasses will be offered by the local dealers of Ray Ban, which undoubtedly the retail leader in optical business ever since the year of 1937. A pair of polarized Ray Ban Eyeglasses would not just appear trendy and stylish but also extremely effectual to block the unsafe UV rays from sunshine.

Diversified models and styles, lots of varieties plus 100% protection from the ultra violet radiations at 400 nm that eliminates rays from sun, Ray Ban produces just the very best class of shades along with best Ray-Ban Eyeglass Frames. Minimizing strain on eyes, these polarized aviator eyeglasses are obtainable in a variety of colours in addition to overall visual acuity.

With another advantage in water activities over normal land ones, for the fishermen as well as the folks who like boating, Ray Ban Eyeglasses would be the best alternative as they are hugely helpful to protect the eyes from extended contact to bright sunlight and glare from the water.

As more and more people are choosing to use corrective vision devices, it is worthwhile to shopping around for the best-priced lenses or eyeglasses if you have time. Of course, eyes are fairly important, so it is not just about economizing. Here are some of the stores (both brick and mortar and online)

1. Walmart optical store provides a licensed optometrist. That exam charges are $45 for a spectacles test and $79 for eyeglasses and contact lenes exam together. Walmart uses 1-800-contacts for their contact lens orders The prescription was for Acuvue Oasys. They expense $239.92 for 8 boxes ($29.99/box) and if you order on the web there will be a coupon for $10 off of $100 order so it’s $229.92. Total for examination and contact lenses is $308.92.

2. Onliner Discountcontactlenses.com: We have ordered contacts from this web site previously. I can normally find a coupon code for possibly more discounts.

The identical contacts that would charge us $229.92 in the Walmart were $168.84 ($23.45/box subtract a 10% reduction) at discountcontactlenses.com. Also, these lenses arrived the day right after I purchased them! I’m also benefiting from a $25 discount for 8 boxes or extra. I saved 86.08 dollars.The total for examination and the purchase of contact lenses is $222.84 in total.

3. The exam fees at ForEye are $49 for eyeglasses, it is about $90-$109 for both spectacle RX and the prescription of contact lenses. The fees here are roughly $30-45 more than other places. The Prices for contact lenses are not that bad comparing with other stores.They charge $28.38/box and give a 25% discount for an 8-box order. The total cost of the contact lenses is $170.28. As they provide me the rx paper so that I would save even more if I order from other places. The total exspenses in ForEye of exam and lenses are $270.28.

4. Pearle Vision Center is a place that you will likely spend extra money for the same products and services comparing with other stores. The cost of a basice eyeglasses test is $59.20 and the cost for both eyeglasses and contact lens prescriptions is $111.20, which is pretty high. The Acuvue Oasys’s price is about $34.99/box or an enormous $279.92 for the total 8 boxes. That’s roughly about $136.08 being spent more than other retail stores! The total cost of lense and RX is exactly $391.12, really a whopping number.

5. Lenscrafters is another retail brand that is supposed to spend more money which are considered to unnecessary. The eyeglasses exam at LensCrafters is $49and $49 will be charged if you need them to take digital pictures for your eye. The eyeglasses and contact lens examination is $99 in total. $85 will charged if you need toric lenses and other specialized lenses. The price of Acuvue Oasys here in LensCrafters are $34.99 per box, after deducting a $40 discount for buying 8 boxes, the total cost is $239.92 for contact lenses. The final entire cost of contact lenses plus the eye exam is $338.92.

Finally I would to offer the tips for the vision products buyers: only spend money where it’s necessary. As we know, if there was a problem with any of our eyes, it is not worth to choose the low-priced one. But if it is not, worth doing it

It is reported that the scientists in MIT has developed a set of software and hardware to self-check the eyes and can get full RX. But at the same time, scientists say this device can not replace the trip to optometrists in case of any eye diseases.

Just 2 minutes and 2 dollars and a mobile phone are now all it takes to obtain an eyeglass prescription. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new application for smart phones that, when combined with a slim, affordable lens, could give cheap but also precise eyeglass prescriptions to smart phone users. This research may help enormous amounts of people around the world see better with regard to a reduced amount of dollars.

“Most ophthalmalogic equipment vary from simple eye charts to costly autorefractors,” mentioned Ramesh Raskar, a scientist at MIT who seem to present the application at the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2010 Conference.

“We are somewhere in between. Right here you just use your mobile phone and a low-priced optical plate to align a series of patterns.”

This combined app and monitor operates like a traditional, analogue camera with a manual focus lens. In contrast to modern day digital cameras, which focus completely on its own, the new app and screen needs the user to bring patterns into focus. Just after loading the app, a user attaches a short, conical viewfinder (around $2 currently, although Raskar believes this will soon decrease to fifty cents) to the screen of their high resolution mobile phones and looks in. A series of patterns appear. The user aligns the patterns by simply pressing buttons on the mobile phone. The more button pushed, the worse a individual’s vision. The application repeats this process four times, one for every axis regarding the eyes. Throughout the procedure the application as well measures other irregularities, including astigmatism. As soon as almost all the patterns have been lined up the application issues a person’s eyeglass prescription. Start to finish that needs about 2 minutes to deliver a full prescription.

Right now the new approach is exactly as precise as present ophthalmalogic devices, and much, far cheaper than many others. Within a couple of months the Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment (or NETRA) device will be a lot more accurate than most lenses, stated Raskar. The application may possess its constraints. Only cell phones with a high resolution touch screen, for example the Nexus One or the iPhone, could run this app. This application is also only useful with regard to people who can react to the directions on the screen; most kids could not work with the application.

This application could not substitute visits to optometrist, explained Raskar. Optometrists integrate a person’s medical related background as well as additional aspects into a ultimate spectacles prescription. Further than the accuracy and reliability associated with a patient’s eyeglasses though, optometrists additionally examine regarding eye disorders such as macular degeneration and cataracts. This MIT application do not check for medical conditions which might disable an individual involving his or her eyesight, at the very least not at the moment, claimed Raskar. Incorporating illness prognosis towards this app is one objective of the team.

This 1st stage has been developing the application. The up coming stage is to deploy it, initially in the United States and later all over the globe. MIT will be doing the job with different NGOs in various nations to aid distribute both the application and the viewfinder, which together will be recognized at PerfectSight. Within just three to six months Raskar expects to get all the things prepared to roll out globally.

“What is truly great regarding this particular challenge is that this could be implemented throughout the world,” mentioned David Brady, an optical professional and professor at the Duke University. “Individuals may not get good accessibility to premium ophthalmologic devices, but throughout the world there is good accessibility to mobile phones.”

“This is an amazingly simple strategy that offers you a very good measurement of a person’s eye prescription,” he stated.

My question is: can the people in Africa who can not access eye doctors afford to buy iPhone 4 or Nexus One? In most of the cases, people with iPhone will sure afford to buy doctor’s service.  So is this technology really practical for the poor?

Did you ever hear about the iPhone application for purchasing eyeglasses online? Perfect Glasses USA is just launching this fantastic service.

Perfect Glasses USA, a Huntington Beach, California company is proud to declare the launch of its innovative iPhone application! With this free brand new iGlassesUSA application, any iphone owner can now carry the complete Perfect Glasses USA shop just in your fingertips and view plus purchase the perfect pair of glasses out of anywhere! This application will allow users to look for through various brands of prescription glasses as well as sunglasses right on their apple iphone, including that widest selection involving varied Paul Frank styles readily available on the internet. Customers could pick out the particular appropriate pair of glasses for your appearance form and style without difficulty by using this specific software package, as well as show friends the products you bought online.

Perfect Glasses USA strives to transform the means people acquire discount spectacles along with eyeglasses mainly by the web-based approach of internet commerce and the convenience of web purchases. Mr. Thompson had mentioned, “There is no need in today’s tech advances to get into a store and purchase eyeglasses anymore. Perfect Glasses USA offer the greatest high quality glasses with a fair cost, and there is simply no way any other on-line competition can come close to their exceptional quality and speedy shipping time. With Perfect Glasses USA you will spend less by 60% off retail store prices, all the while resting assured that they tend to be backed by 60 years regarding experience in optics and manufacturing as well as offering a cozy buying environment with a Huntington Beach after services.

In the event that you don’t have an iPhone or any apps, no worries! You will be in a position to check out the official website online at http://www.perfectglassesusa.com which is nevertheless the user-friendly as well as effective web terminal , or you will be able to wait not so long for Perfect Glasses USA’s future upcoming Android mobile phone app. Visit us now and uncover the perfect pair of eyeglasses or trendy sunglasses for you!