Review: Hoya’s Yuniku platform

The bespoke potential of additive manufacturing has been realised in other medical sectors for several years, but only now are the optical benefits of the technology beginning to be leveraged in the eyewear sector.

A production method that did not need special tooling, development or minimum order quantities was always going to appeal to eyewear designers whose primary concern was aesthetics. But the individualised elements of 3D printing, combined with high resolution cameras and complex software, has brought the technology to a wider set of developers concerned with outright optical performance.

They may have taken a while to become a reality, but a little over two years ago, the first prototype facial scanning systems began to filter into the trade exhibition circuit. The concept was relatively simple: Patient image capture; avatar creation; frame overlaid on patient using data from the photo; bespoke frame delivered to patient.