PixelOptics focuses on new lens

The Roanoke County company says the new lenses help intermediate vision without the lines.

By Duncan Adams
981-3324

Roanoke Times, Roanoke, VA

Wearing old-fashioned bifocals could make even "Harry Potter" heartthrob Daniel Radcliffe appear old and stodgy.

On Thursday, PixelOptics, an expanding optical technology company based in Roanoke County, introduced a new bifocal-type lens to optometrists at the International Vision West Expo in Las Vegas.

The new lens is not the high-tech "electro-active" product PixelOptics has predicted will someday transform the eyeglasses business. That lens, which would electronically adjust focus to coincide with a wearer's shifting focal point, remains in development, said Ron Blum, chairman, president and chief executive officer of PixelOptics.

The "static" atLast lens emerged during development of the "dynamic" electro-active lens, said Blum, an optometrist, inventor and entrepreneur.

PixelOptics says the atLast lens is a much improved version of traditional bifocals and trifocals. The company suggests the new lens offers wider, clearer vision, much improved intermediate vision, less "jump" between near and far vision zones and more cosmetic appeal because it is free of the visible lines that many customers feel signal they are well past their prime.

The atLast lens is being manufactured in a "country outside the U.S." and will launch national sales Nov. 1, said Bill Spies, PixelOptics' chief operating officer.

"Everybody wins with this lens, including wholesalers, eye care professionals and customers," Spies said.

Traditional bifocals have different prescriptions on the top and bottom halves of the lenses. Blum said the atLast lens offers four zones of clear vision: distance, important for driving, watching TV and similar activities; far intermediate, clear vision from 29 inches to five feet; intermediate, from 18 inches to 29 inches; and near, from 14 inches to 18 inches.

The new lens "allows for the largest cubic area of clear vision from 14 inches to five feet of any lens known today," he said. "Nothing comes close."

And that range could be good news for people who spend hours at computers or otherwise need clear vision within five feet of their work area, he said.

When touting products in development, Blum's penchant to be a peek-a-boo tease is legendary in the optical trade.

But PixelOptics has been especially secretive about the atLast lens to keep potential competitors at bay, Blum said.

Yet company patents, both secured and filed "around the world," should protect the lens' fundamental technologies, he said.

Dr. Dan Durrie, an ophthalmologist based in Kansas City, Kan., has worked with Blum on some of the optometrist's projects. Durrie said he is not an investor in PixelOptics but does own a piece of The Egg Factory, from which spinoff eVision subsequently spun off PixelOptics.

Blum "is very good at protecting intellectual property," Durrie said, and "challenges the norm" in the optical industry.

The atLast lens should appeal to eye care professionals and customers, Durrie said, both because of expanded zones of clear vision and the absence of lines traditionally visible in bifocals and trifocals.

"You never know what the public is going to get excited about but, if marketed properly, it will do well," Durrie said. "And 'atLast' is a great name."

Before the lens' coming-out party Thursday, Blum named five other eye care professionals who have been privy to its inside dope. Like Durrie, all had some research tie to Blum or to one or more of his companies.

Optometrist Andrew Ishak practices in Vermont. He said he has been an optometrist for two decades.

"In those 20 years, we have had two choices for patients with presbyopia -- traditional bifocals and trifocals or progressive addition lenses."

Presbyopia is a condition commonly starting in middle age that makes reading at close range more difficult and can blur vision at other distances.

Progressive addition lenses work well for many people, but they feature some distortion and "swim" to which many wearers never adjust. Blum said the atLast lenses provide clearer vision than progressive ones in the far intermediate range.

But he emphasized that PixelOptics' new lens is not meant to compete with progressive addition lenses.

Blum's earlier work helped Johnson & Johnson develop the Definity progressive lens, which J&J ultimately sold to Essilor, a move that plucked from Roanoke high-paying, high-tech jobs and left an empty building along Interstate 581.

What is PixelOptics' target market for atLast?

The company says it hopes to sell the lens, through optical labs and eye care professionals, to about 17 million people in the United States and another 33 million worldwide who, for various reasons, still wear lined bifocals and trifocals.

PixelOptics will distribute the semifinished lenses -- which Blum said are shaped sort of like hockey pucks -- to optical labs across the country. The labs will grind and polish the atLast lens like any other to match a patient's prescription, he said.

Distribution will occur from PixelOptics' new quarters in a leased 17,000-square-foot building at ValleyPointe business park in Roanoke County.

The facility also will house research and development activity, optical design work, sales and marketing, a customer service call center, managers of the company and other staff, Blum said.

As of Sept. 26, PixelOptics had 34 employees. Blum said the company anticipates adding six before year's end and another 30 by the end of 2009.

According to Blum, PixelOptics' major financial partners include the Panasonic Venture Group, The Carlyle Group, Delphi Ventures, Life Science Angels and others. He said PixelOptics closed a deal last week for an additional $30 million in funding.

Durrie said PixelOptics is jumping into an industry dominated by Essilor and other major players.

"This is going to go up against some very big people," he said. "They are going to be playing with the big boys."

Durrie said those competitors might respond to atLast by buying or licensing the lens' technologies, by bad-mouthing its performance or by developing a similar product.