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

141eyewear.com, as its name says, meaning “One for One Eyewear”—- Any buyer buys one pair from them, 141eyewear.com will give one pair to the people in need, which is exactly as what their slogan of  ” You Buy, We Give, 141″.

According to WHO, 153 million people around the globe do not have adequate access to all types of vision correction devices. As the sight is considered to be the most inseparable sense of human body, choosing eyewear is incontestably the most meaningful decision.

141 is co-founded by Kyle Yamaguchi, who used to be a designer at Nike, and Shu-Chu Wu, who is an optician. “Starting a business that creates a sustainable model for providing eyewear to those in need just felt like the right thing to do,” Yamaguchi tells reoprter. “We chose eyewear because your sight is arguably your most important sense, and we know that prescription eyewear happens to be one of those things many of us take for granted.”

In my opinion, 141 is really a good idea. By being attributive of charity features, people will spread it in a viral manner. The really good part is 141 does help people in vision needs in the world, especially the poor countries.

Since PixelOptics and Transitions Optical, Inc. announced their partnership for atLast! lenses in 2009,  PixelOptics announced today to release its atLast!™ Composite 59 Transitions® lenses which is the first multifocals of its kind in the market, under the brand name of Transitions.

Utilizing PixelOptics’ patented composite technology, atLast! Composite 59 Transitions features a unique combination of Trivex on the front surface of the lens and 1.59 index polycarbonate on the back. Both are widely-used lens materials that provide wearers with a thin, lightweight, impact-resistant photochromic lens. atLast! Composite 59 Transitions will be available in gray and brown.

Composite 59 Transitions are part of PixelOptics’ atLast! Enhanced Multifocals line which, using the company’s patented composite lens design technology, combine a progressive surface with an embedded power segment to provide continuous, clear intermediate vision from close-up to five feet away, with a soft power jump at 70 percent less than that of equivalent bifocal add power. Unique in providing Far-Intermediate vision, atLast! lenses offer a broader range for bifocal wearers who often miss the intermediate range of vision where many daily activities occur.

“atLast! Composite 59 Transitions are a perfect marriage of lens technologies that will greatly benefit wearers’ overall vision experience. Enhanced Multifocals improve optical performance for bifocal and trifocal wearers, while Transitions lenses help wearers easily shift between indoor and outdoor environments. Creating a lens that features both technical innovations is a logical next step in eye care which we believe wearers will truly value,” says Ronald Blum, O.D., Chairman, CEO, and Founder of PixelOptics.

Since 2009, both companies have announced they will continue their partnership to market PixelOptics’ emPower! electronic eyewear which is expected to be introduced to consumers in a national rollout in 2011.

A new high-tech gadget concerning eyeglasses has been seen in its prototype in Japan. This time, the device is a combination of a pair of eyeglasses and a GPS system.

This new gadget is developed by the Nakajima Laboratory at the University of Electro-Communications in Japan, with the LED lights built into the eyeglass frame to help the wearer moving in the correct direction.

In the specially-made eyeglass frame, a mini micro-processor is built in. Just like the one we are using in the car, the glasses wearer needs to input the final destination he is going to reach, then the GPS eyeglasses will tell the wearer whether he is in walking in the right direction by seeing the LED light pattern. If the LED tells you that you are in the wrong way, you can just simply try other directions.

The spokesman of the project said, “With most current navigation systems, you have to look at a handset display as you walk. Looking at the screen while walking can be dangerous. But with this system, all you need to do is be aware of the LED light while you walk.”

As it is still in the stage of prototype, no one knows when this device will be in the market and in which form. High-tech does help make our life easier, but how about this GPS glasses?

According to the report of American Academy of Ophthalmology, the tiny, translucent contact lenses, and the eyeglasses on kids’ noses, they’re a potential source and cause for incidents that happen in their eyes.

Contact lenses are the most common cause of medical-device associated injuries among children over the age of 11, according to research published this week in Pediatrics.  The article reviewing medical records from 100 hospital emergency departments between 2004 and 2005, estimated that nearly 34,000 (or 23 percent) of annual cases were due to contact lens injuries in children and teens.

Contact lenses and eye glasses accounted for 40 percent of all medical device associated injuries. The lenses were associated with corneal abrasions, ulcerations and conjunctivitis (swelling or infection of the membrane lining the eyelids).  Eyeglasses were reported to cause lacerations to the eyes or face.

The American Academy of Ophthalmology issued a statement reiterating that contact lenses are medical devices that require a prescription, proper fitting by an eye care professional and proper care by the consumer.

Experts suggest if children experience pain, burning, redness, tearing or sensitivity to light while wearing any type of contact lenses, the organization advises checking with your eye doctor.

In the released study, researchers advised parents and guardians of children to “determine” the maturity level of their children before purchasing contact lenses for them. The study advised the usual procedures for hygiene in order to reduce the amount of contact lens-related injuries: washing the hands, keeping proper contact with lenses, kept in a clean case in a clean place, and replacing them promptly if there are problems such as itchiness after wearing the lenses.

Other medical devices involved in many emergency room visits for America’s youth are typically wheelchairs, powered scooters, eyeglasses, crutches, and hypodermic needles. Ear tubes, heart devices, catheters and other such medical instruments are also of concern for the safety of children.

This is a serious warning to the youth with refraction errors. Both the parents and kids themselves should keep a special eye on this issue.

Source: CNN blog

If you own a retail clothing store, and you want to extend your reach online, you may register as a “seller” on eBay or Amazon, and then you can also sell to your online customers. Now the same thing will be possible for the independent ECPs selling eyeglasses online. This is what I browsed about at a blogger’s site —– a new concept of online optical store, ZipEyewear.com.

Though Zip Eyewear is just an informational site of its beta version, we can of course know about what the founders are going to do. As what the site reads, ZipEyewear is a uniquely innovative approach to online eyewear sales. If ECPs are ready to embrace Internet sales, ZipEyewear is here to help lift up their business to the next level.  ZipEyewear offers to provide traditional ECPs’ business a strong Internet presence, as well as increase ECPs’ store’s sales volume. Any ECP who wants to sell through Zip, they can register as “provider” and upload own frame selection, and Zip will advertise these frames for ECPs free.  Zip only charges 10% of the voucher that the online buyers fulfills on ZipEyewear.

Zip’s “from site to store” program is really an ambitious idea, striving to drive online surfing customers to the stores of ECPs, enabling customers being served with ECPs’ professional optical services(normal online stores are just crippled on this point). ZipEyewear claims all the lenses and frames will be priced based on what the other major online competitors are charging.

Then questions arise naturally. Firstly, How can Zip price the lenses and frames at the same level as other online stores while the ECPs can still make money? 2. How can Zip attract end-users to visit their site? It is very capital- and wisdom-intensive! 3. How can Zip attract ECPs to become providers and upload their frames selection?

Will Zip be the next eBay or Amazon in optical area?

After the MIT scientists use iPhone or Nexus One to handle the eye test and issue full optical prescription, Essilor releases its own iPhone or iPod application to allow the users to take an interactive test of the eyes. There are a couple of modules for testing things like vision acuity,astigmatism and duochrome.  After finishing the test, the robot will advise you to take a formal eye test, not in other doctors’ office, but in the independent Varilux specialist practitioners in the United Kingdom.

So the real purpose of issuing this app is to drive the potential patients to come to Essilor’s eye test doctors’ office. On this point, this is really a good idea, and this will help Essilor further vertically integrate the optical business.

Currently this app is customized for UK market.  The built-in software even has a feature of searching the nearest Varilux office for you to make an appointment for an eye test.

Here is the personal experience of EOH blogger:

http://eyeoverheard.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/essilor-releases-sight-test-for-apple-iphone-global-domination-continues/

German Optical company Vistan.de’s idea of creating different-look eyeglasses is worth mentioning.

As the photo on the left side shows, Vistan make the temples of the eyeglasses detachable, so you will have different temples in different shape and color to match wearer’s costume and for use in different occasions. In this case you can only have one style of the front style, the only thing you have the option to change is the temples.

This idea well addresses the needs of eyeglasses wearers while keeping the total cost on the eyeglasses low. This is quite similar as the purchasers of online eyeglasses buying more than one pair at a time, of course in this case, the buyers will also change the “front style” of the glasses.

The Italy-based industry giant Luxottica Group, a $6.6 billion company, has recently launched its first Eye Hub optical retail store in Melbourne, Australia. Designed by E2, a designer of London’s Millennium Dome. Eye Hub is a part of  OPSM, which is the equivalent of LensCrafters in the United States. This new concept optical retail store is the first of its kind to include a simulator room with wind, snow, water etc to test the eyeglasses and sunglasses of its glare and wind-resistance features. It also boasts a touch-screen interactive mirrors that allow people to play back their new look and share the image with friends from social networking sites such as Facebook. The new store has a kids area where parents can leave their kids while they are shopping and experiencing around. The store’s floor plan is in the shape of an eyeball.

This new store costs 2 to 3 times more than a normal LensCrafters store in the United States, with 1500 square meters. Based on the article published in the ads section of  New York Times on July 20,2010, Luxottica is going to open 10-15 stores in this kind in the coming 2 to 3 years in China, UK and USA.

The setting of the stores also includes a concierge who meets customers at the door. Besides selling eyeglasses and sunglasses, Lux expects to use this store to conduct live research and development, and then copy successful experience to use in other existing retail stores in the future.

“If the Internet was perfect for everybody, obviously no one would shop at retail stores,” said Chris Beer, chief executive of Asia Pacific, greater China and South Africa for Luxottica. “The reality is, you need to create a connection, create a personal experience, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Luxottica was starting to recover from a tough 2009,  its 2010  1st quarter sales rose by 6% comparing with the same period of 2009. Lux hopes that the  new type of retail experience would help recover its sales. Luxottica is facing two very tough situation. On the one hand, it needs to address the sales slump arising from the recession, on the other hand, it also needs to face the siphoning of eyeglasses customers by online eyeglasses shopping.

Can Luxottica really collect information from customers through the new store? I guess not. Apple may be successful in doing the similar stores, as Apple is always releasing new things from new ideas, but the eyeglasses and sunglasses are just two pieces of lenses. Are these lenses fancy enough to lure visitors to buy?

In addition, I think the online eyeglasses buyers, in most of the cases, are not the ones who will have interest in Eye Hub’s eyeglasses. The best result possible for Eye Hub is grab a niche market who really really does not care about money.

VillaEyewear.com has just announced new agreement with Allison to distribute John Richmond Eyewear Collection, a new collection of eyewear and sunglasses boasting and combining strong music components and street chics.

Here are some of the photos showing part of the collection.

In the similar ideas of PixelOptics’ electronic bifocals, TruFocals.com’s touch-focus eyeglasses mean to address the same needs of the people over 40 or 45.

Following the same route as Benjamin Franklin, TruFocals’ touch-focus glasses help people with presbyopia to eliminate the constant shift between distance eyeglasses and closeup spectacles. By touching the ’slider” on the nose bridge, the wearer can easily and flexibly change the pressure of the liquid inside the lenses, thus achieving the sharpest vision.

The mechanism of the touch-focus eyeglasses requires the shape of the lenses to be round. Currently the company design a frame style which is similar to classic Harry Potter’s eyeglasses, as only the round lens shape can allow the pressure of the liquid to be allocated evenly. There are two lenses, one is firm while the other is flexible and is filled with clear liquid with good feature of light transmission.

UK Oxford-based company Adlens have the almost same eyeglasses which are now commercialized by the same name American company.

We believe technology and innovation will mostly bring well being and convenience to the general public. Eyeglasses in above mechanism, adjusted to the best possible vision possible by the wearers themselves, can sure achieve the vision acuity.  This actually skip the step of eye check by the eye doctors, and actually the wearers are issuing “RX” by themselves. As I know, the RX from optometrist does not only mean the vision sharpness, doctors will have a wider consideration of all the other aspects of eye health before issuing the final RX. Are these self-adjusting glasses really healthy?

According to TruFocals.com, customers can order from their online portal, and the price is US$900 which is not cheap. Currently the style of the frame is really not fashionable at all.