Israeli dynamic focal glasses startup Deep Optics has raised $4 Million in a Series A financing round to fuel the development of its electronic lens and glasses system. The round includes strategic investor Essilor, the world leader in ophthalmic optics, Taiwan-based Atomics 14 Ventures and several private investors, including Saar Wilf, Deep Optics’s chairman and first investor.
Petah Tikva based Deep Optics brings a technological breakthrough to the multi-billion dollar multifocal market, aiming to provide alternative progressive glasses and new ophthalmic applications with electronic dynamic focal technologies based on its proprietary and patent-pending liquid crystal lenses. The Company was named the most promising start-up at the sixth annual Israel Machine Vision Conference and Exhibition (IMVC) in 2015.
Deep Optics cofounder and CEO Yariv Hadad said,“The human eye has a natural focusing ability that degrades with age. Current multifocal glasses compensate for this degradation, but they cannot offer adaptable correction power management. The dynamic solution we’re developing is actually similar to the human focusing mechanism, and so in addition to its superior lens function, should be even easier to get used to with minimal, if any, adjustment required."
Deep Optics is also exploring additional applications for its adaptive electronic lens technology. Two notable applications are AR (Augmented Reality) and VR (Virtual Reality) systems, which are likely to benefit from the addition of adaptive optics to future models. According to Haddad, Deep Optics has already started discussions with companies in this field. Atomic 14 Ventures founder Phil Chen said, “While first generation VR and AR systems are entering the consumer stage, and already attracting interest and expectation at a feverish pitch, it’s clear that we are just at the beginning of this promising journey. There are still many challenges on the road to an immersive 3D virtual reality experience, or convincing mixed reality scenes. Deep Optics, with its unique adaptive optics capabilities, can significantly improve the depth perception and overall authenticity of the 3D experience by dynamically matching the optics focus to the content’s simulated depth. In my view, this is a crucial breakthrough in the technological roadmap of this field, and I believe Deep Optics plays a key component in both the VR/AR software and hardware stack.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 1, 2016
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