Pixel Optics’ Electrical Spectacles: The Future is (Almost) Here

After having spent over a decade in development, the line of electronic eyewear from Roanoke, VA-based PixelOptics is about to be released. The line of smart eyewear, emPower!, looks identical to regular glasses but comes equipped with state of the art technology. PixelOptics is owned by optometrist and entrepreneur Ron Blum, and the line of high-tech eyewear was showcased last month at the International Vision Expo in New York. Before leaving for the expo, Blum admitted to a bit of nervousness. “We will be taking the sheet off the artwork we’ve been working on for ten years” he said.

Can you believe these are electronic?

What the Lenses Do

So what is the exact nature of the “artwork” that was revealed at the new York expo last month? The glasses are powered by a tiny, hidden, rechargeable battery and can focus faster than the blink of an eye. The electronic lenses will replace traditional progressive and bifocal lenses – the type of eyewear many people find themselves needing as they approach middle age and beyond. Whereas traditional bifocal lenses have dividing lines and and areas of visual distortion, the futuristic emPower! lenses don’t.

The mega-corporation Panasonic partnered with PixelOptics to help develop the technology, and Blum said the scientific expertise they brought to the table was invaluable. The Chief Technology Officer for Panasonic Shikoku Electronics Co, Yukinori Okazaki said “We anticipate there will be a lot of opportunities in health care that will benefit the world’s aging population in which Panasonic Shikoku Co can play a significant role. We see Pixel’s electronic eyeglasses as one of these opportunities.”

A Legacy of Turning Science Fiction Into Science Fact

This isn’t the first time the company has bridged the gap between techno-fantasy and reality. In 2006, PixelOptics was granted a $3.5 million grant from the United States military to develop glasses that would allow US soldiers to have better than 20/20 vision. The technology, called SuperVision, was predicted to reduce the number of friendly fire incidents. Whatever was invented as a result of the 2006 military grant to PixelOptics isn’t public information, but if the very publicly talked about emPower! glasses are anything to go off of, it was probably both very cool and very useful.

The Competition

If super-high-tech electronic eyewear doesn’t sound appealing to you, a new product from Zoom Focus Eyewear LLC called TruFocals might be right up your alley (we discussed them previously). The glasses come with a built-in slider that allows used to focus the lenses themselves. They’re not very pretty, though. The lenses are round and Harry Potter-like, and as Laura Johannas at the Wall Street Journal put it, “The fashion-conscious might want to wait for PixelOptics Inc.’s new electronic glasses, which will be available nationally in early 2011.”

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