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June 25, 2015April 24, 2018

Intel Acquires Canadian Smart Eyewear Company Recon

Intel has completed its acquisition of the Vancouver-based company Recon Instruments, a manufacturer of smart, computerized eyewear for athletes.

Recon, founded in 2008, produces the intelligent glasses Jet™, with built-in GPS and motion tracking, and skiing goggles Snow2, which also contains an onboard camera.

Since becoming the CEO of Intel in 2013, Brian Krzanich has been committed to making Intel a player in wearable technologies. Intel’s New Technology Group has also collaborated with Luxottica’s Oakley brand to produce smart eyewear and recently announced the plans to release the Curie Module, a chip designed for use in wearable devices.

Further information: http://www.reconinstruments.com/2015/06/intel-acquires-recon-instruments/

June 24, 2015April 24, 2018

Survey Finds Poor Vision, Hearing Loss in Adolescents

A recent survey of French adolescents sponsored by the Optic 2000 group has found that visual and auditory health problems are increasingly common, even though only a quarter of the teens surveyed reported being concerned about their own health.

Teenagers spend an average of 4 hours a day in front of a screen, and the survey found that 44% of adolescents aged 13 to 18 had experienced eye strain or dry eye. 37% of those surveyed admitted to not wearing their prescribed glasses.

The survey highlights the need for increased awareness and prevention, according to Yves Guénin, secretary general of Optic 2000. 90% of those surveyed reported that they are sensitive to messages from healthcare professionals, and one in two changed their behaviour based on advice from their parents.

Further Information (French): http://www.observatoire-groupeoptic2000.fr/etudes/vue-audition-adolescents/

June 22, 2015May 19, 2026

CCLR Update Spotlights Sports Vision in Practice

Contact Lens Update Sports Vision Spotlight

Issue 26 of Contact Lens Update, published by the Centre for Contact Lens Research (CCLR), University of Waterloo, features sports vision as an emerging specialization area. David Mann, from the Faculty of Human Movement Science at VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands, reviews a European study of 157 Olympic-level athletes in a variety of sports, giving clues as to how clinicians might help customize their approach to optimize on-field performance for a given sport.

Kristin Dalton, Assistant Professor and creator of the Sports Vision Clinic at U of Waterloo in 2014, provides practical advice in her editorial overview on how to start up sports vision services in practice.

Dr. Dalton, and the new sports vision clinic were featured in the March 2015 issue of Optik (see page 32). In reference to Sports Vision as a rewarding part of clinical practice, Dr. Dalton concludes that, as in the beauty of sport, “anything is possible”.

Visit Contact Lens Update online.

June 19, 2015April 24, 2018

Waterloo Student Wins $100,000 Grant to Develop Smart Contact Lenses

The Thiel Foundation announced last week that its class of 2015 Thiel Fellows includes University of Waterloo student Harry Gandhi, co-founder and CEO of Medella Health, a Canadian start-up which plans to develop glucose-monitoring “smart” contact lenses to aid in diabetes management.

Recipients of the Thiel Fellowship receive $100,000 over two years and only students under 22 are eligible.

The search for continuous, non-invasive glucose monitors for the estimated 387 million diabetes sufferers worldwide is a hot topic among researchers and technology companies. Last year Alcon and Google announced that they were forming a partnership to develop glucose-monitoring contact lenses, as well as an accompanying mobile app, though experts estimate that smart contact lenses are at least five years away from being a commercial product.

Further information: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/peter-thiel-fellowship-awarded-to-4-canadian-entrepreneurs-1.3102670

UPDATE: Medella Health closes $1.4 Mio Seed Capital Financing.

June 18, 2015April 24, 2018

Google Patents Biometric Contact Lens

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, Google has been awarded a patent on several designs and implementations of contact lenses capable of scanning the wearer’s iris and using it as a biometric “fingerprint”.

One of the patented contact lens designs includes multiple sensors that measure the light filtered through the iris, circuitry which can communicate with remote devices, and a power source. This information would be used for the purposes of authentication and identification.

Iris recognition scans are considered by security experts to be more accurate and difficult to fake than fingerprints, but current iris scanning technology is unable to distinguish a real eye from a high quality photograph.

Further information: http://www.healio.com/optometry/contact-lenses-eye-wear/news/online/%7Bc8f5d97a-d495-4c2a-a4e1-a2e978102b4e%7D/google-patents-contact-lenses-with-iris-scanning-technology/

Intel Acquires Canadian Smart Eyewear Company Recon

Survey Finds Poor Vision, Hearing Loss in Adolescents

CCLR Update Spotlights Sports Vision in Practice

Waterloo Student Wins $100,000 Grant to Develop Smart Contact Lenses

Google Patents Biometric Contact Lens

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