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VisionMonday

December 4, 2012

In This Edition

Heads Up
Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear

Spec-techular
Amblyz from XPand 3D

Sight Seeing
Bionic Eye Clears Key FDA Hurdle

Peripheral Vision
Special Specs Fight Jet Lag

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Heads Up

Nike SPARQ Vapor Strobe Eyewear Helps Athletes Bring Their A-Game

The term “performance enhancing” has come under a cloud lately due to its negative association with drug abusing athletes. On the positive side, though, there are new technologies that can enhance an athlete’s performance without chemically altering their physiology.

That’s the approach that sports shoe giant Nike took when it created Nike SPARQ Sensory Performance, a system of technologies, products and programs designed to assess, analyze and improve an athlete’s visual and sensory performance. (SPARQ is an acronym for Speed, Power, Agility, Reaction and Quickness). Using special eyewear, athletes view an array of lights that flicker between clear and blocked vision to train the athlete’s brain to anticipate what’s coming when their eyes are blocked.

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Spec-techular

XPand 3D's Electronic Shutter Glasses Offer New Treatment for Amblyopia

The common solution for treating children with amblyopia, or lazy eye, has been months of eye patching and the use of atropine drops, which has left many children untreated due to the long and demanding nature of the treatments. Now XPand 3D, a major supplier of 3D eyewear for cinema, home entertainment and gaming, is launching an innovative electronic eyeglass that treats children with amblyopia on the fly.

Externally, the glasses look like a normal prescription pair, but internally they feature an electronic shutter controlled by a preprogrammed microchip incorporated into the glasses frame. The microprocessor controls the shutter, creating short intermittent occlusions of the strong eye in order to treat the lazy eye without any difficulty or discomfort for the child.

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Sight Seeing

Second Sight's Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System May Soon Be Available in U.S.

The Argus II retinal prosthesis system may soon become the first ever bionic eye for the blind available in the U.S. In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Ophthalmic Devices Advisory Panel unanimously voted 19 to 0 that the probable benefit of the Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System outweighs the risks to health, an important step toward the FDA market approval of this product manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products, Inc.

“The successful launch of Argus II in Europe, and its impact on the lives of these blind patients who have no treatment alternative, has been very gratifying,” Brian Mech, Second Sight’s vice president for business development, told Eye2. “There has been a groundswell of interest from the ophthalmic community around the world. In the US, we are in the final stages with the FDA and expect approval soon. Anticipating this approval we are tackling the next challenge, which will be reimbursement.”

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Peripheral Vision

Sleep Researchers Develop Eyewear That Reduces Jet Lag

If you suffer from jet lag, a new type of eyewear called the Re-Timer might be just the cure. A portable light device that mimics the benefits of sunlight, the Re-Timer reduces jet lag by retiming your body clock in small steps before you travel according to its inventors, who are experts in the behavioral management of insomnia.

“Using a light device allows you to transition your body clock to a new time zone in small steps. This eliminates the sudden change people experience after flying and reduces the symptoms of jet lag,” said Professor Leon Lack from Flinders University in Australia, a leading sleep psychologist who played a key role in developing the special specs after 25 years of research.

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Andrew Karp, Group Editor, Lenses and Technology

Send us news about new optical technologies, provide us with subjects and/or questions for a future Eye² Q&A or let us know what topics you'd like to see covered. Contact Eye²'s Editor Andrew Karp at akarp@jobson.com.

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