Electro-active eyewear may be 'next big thing'

US eyewear maker Pixeloptics claims to have developed a lens and frame combination that automatically adjusts focusing power electronically.

Explaining how the lenses adjust focus 'in milliseconds' for working needs or environments, Clay Musslewhite, Pixeloptics' marketing director, said: 'We believe this could be the next big thing in optics.'

The electronics built into the frame 'control a variable focus element built into the lens that shift focus from being virtually a single-vision lens to an intermediate and near lens', when it receives a power charge.

'We are investigating several technologies at the moment such as a tilt switch that changes focus when you lean forward to read, or a touch switch that would allow the wearer to turn it on or off. It could also be controlled by an instant focusing technology similarly to that of an auto-focusing camera,' he said. 'There would be no distortion to this lens and intermediate vision would be probably 10 times wider than it is right now.'