THE ROANOKE TIMES
October 8, 2003
Duncan Adams
Inventor sees promise in eye-exam
instrument
High-tech companies have vision
for device
The advanced "phoropter" will
measure the focusing quality of a person's eyes and also find abnormalities
currently undetected.
Roanoke high-tech inventor Ron Blum has a role in
"phoropter: the next generation," which owes more to concepts
from Star Wars, the military version, than "Star Trek."
Blum and a subsidiary of his Roanoke company, the
Egg Factory, are involved in the development of a sophisticated new
"phoropter," or eye - exam instrument, that will incorporate
technologies patented by the Egg Factory and e-Vision, its subsidiary.
The new phoropter's optics technologies will use concepts
created by the military's Strategic Defense Initiative, also called
Star Wars, the company said. The Egg Factory's chief technology officer
is Dwight Duston, who once had ties to the Strategic Defense Initiative.
As envisioned, the advanced optical - exam instrument
will measure the focusing quality of a person's eyes and also find abnormalities
currently undetected by phoropters or "auto-refractors."
In addition, it will immediately offer the patient
an experience of how his or her vision could improve with correction
provided by advanced spectacle lenses, contact lenses or surgeries.
"There is evidence to suggest you can do better
than 20/20 and that this vision will be wanted by consumers," said
Bill Kokonaski, vice president of technologies for the Egg Factory.
E-Vision and WaveTec Vision Systems of Los Angeles
have formed a company called Adaptive Vision Systems, which is Roanoke-based.
Once the technologies of the two are integrated, WaveTec's patented
vision - screening system will provide the measuring component and e-Vision's
electro-active lenses will offer the patient an experience of what correction
can do.
"We believe that the technologies of our two
companies can be combined in a way that will significantly benefit the
optical industry, eye care professionals, and most importantly the world's
vision care public," said Blum, president and chief executive of
the Egg Factory.
Jim Currie, the Egg Factory's chief operating officer,
said company officials estimate that between 80 million and 120 million
Americans will see better once these previously undetected vision abnormalities
are measured and corrected.
"It's our goal to help everyone have the most
accurate eye exam possible and get a prescription that will allow them
to see the best they can," Currie said.
Tony VanHeugten, chief technology officer for Adaptive
Vision Systems, said the new phoropter will dovetail with advances in
corrective technologies.
"There has been a recent convergence of measuring
technology with that of manufacturing technology," VanHeugten said.
"In the past, we could measure various aberrations, but had very
little chance of ever being able to manufacture a corrective lens capable
of correcting the defects we measured."
Both Kokonaski and Currie said they anticipate the
new eye - exam instrument could go to market in two to three years.
E-vision's electro-active lens technology, which will
allow automatic focusing of spectacle lenses, was licensed last year
to Johnson & Johnson for eyeglass lens applications.
Johnson & Johnson's Spectacle Lens Division already
has a manufacturing plant in Roanoke, where it produces an advanced
eyeglass lens that Blum's research and development helped create.
Blum founded the Egg Factory in Roanoke in April 1999
as an "innovation development" company.
