Optics

Vuzix smart glass HUD prescription eyewear now commercially available

June 25, 2015

Eyeglass World launched the first retail collection of Vuzix M100 prescription Smart Glasses to support a better HUD experience.

Gail Overton

Vista, CA Chamber of Commerce CEO Bret Schanzebach tries out one of the wearable devices in Eyeglass World’s new smart glass collection.

Eyeglass World (Lawrenceville, GA), US retailer of affordable prescription eyewear, launched the first retail collection of prescription lenses for the Vuzix Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI; Rochester, NY) M100 Smart Glasses and other smart glasses technologies in the U.S. The debut of specially designed prescription lens options for wearable brands including Vuzix coincides with Eyeglass World's retail expansion into California. Eyeglass World celebrated the grand opening of a Vista, CA location on Friday, June 19, 2015, which is the first of eight Eyeglass World stores planned for the San Diego area by June 2016.

Prescription smart glass solutions from Eyeglass World use Smart GOLD Lenses, developed in partnership with Rochester Optical, to compensate for the unique visual demands of smart glasses. Whereas normal prescription lenses are not optimized for devices using a heads-up display (HUD) such as the Vuzix M100, Smart GOLD Lenses provide specific adjustments—unique to a user's eyes—for the upper corners of a lens where a HUD is located. This greater visual clarity may help minimize eyestrain and eye fatigue for smart glass wearers. Eyeglass World says it now becomes the first retailer in the world to offer Vuzix M100 hardware with the availability of prescription lenses.

Vuzix products include personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays, and virtual and augmented reality. Vuzix holds 41 patents and 10 additional patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the video eyewear field.

Eyeglass World is an optical retail chain owned by National Vision. It has 8,000 employees and its retail divisions include Eyeglass World, America's Best Contacts & Eyeglasses, Vision Centers brought to you by Walmart, and Vista Optical inside Fred Meyer and Optical Centers on select military bases.

SOURCE: Vuzix; http://www.vuzix.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Eyeglass%20World.pdf

About the Author

Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)

Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.