NEW YORK --- A new
company headed by Ron Blum, OD, the optometrist, inventor, and entrepreneur
who founded Innotech, is developing a microchip-powered spectacle lens
that can automatically focus at any distance.
The basic technology
for what Blum called a "programmable, electro-active lens" is patented
by Motorola, which has granted Blum's company, e-Vision, an option on
an exclusive, worldwide license under U.S. patent 5,359,444 entitled
"Auto-Focus Optical Apparatus."
Said Blum, who is
president and chief executive officer of both e-Vision and its parent,
the Egg Factory, "This Motorola intellectual property will benefit the
proporietary vision-care technology currently under development by e-Vision."
Financial terms
of the option and subsequent license involve both cash and equity, but
specific details were not disclosed. As part of the transaction, Motorola
will be given a seat on e-Vision's board of managers.
Shamir Optical,
the Israeli company that designs and manufactures spectacle lenses and
molds, is working with e-Vision to develop the lens.
Blum said the development
project, though still in the early stages, is "beyond theoretical.
"We've passed proof
of concept," he remarked. "We can emphatically state that we can take
electronics and chemistry and change lens power by at least 2.00 diopters
of add power."
Blum said that the
auto-focusing technology involves a liquid crystal display, a power
source, and an infrared range-finding system developed by Motorola.
Blum said, "This
is something that will benefit the entire vision-care industry as well
as society. We can use technology tricks that will allow doctors to
approach vision care in a totally different way."
Blum declined to
provide a timetable for the development project, saying only that e-Vision
has been working on it for about nine months. "The maximum time for
these projects is about three years," he said.
According to Blum,
Egg Factory is a supplier of "transformational technologies." He said
the company's goal is to supply those technologies to global companies
that can then commercialize them.
Noted Keith Bergelt,
director and general manager of Motorola's Strategic Intellectual Asset
Management, "Motorola is looking at licensing our technologies where
we can find strategic business partners that will take our technologies
and develop healthy markets for them." - Andrew Karp
(Reprinted from
Vision Monday, Vol. 14, No. 18)
