Pixieray raises $4.4M for glasses that adapt to what you are seeking at on the fly

Pixieray has raised $4.4 million in seed funding to create what it calls adaptive eyeglasses, which can adjust their lenses to bring into focus something that you are seeking at.

You can believe of it as a pair of prescription eyeglasses exactly where the lenses can zoom in or out, significantly like the camera on your iPhone, so that your vision is fantastic no matter what you are seeking at. It’s like eyeglasses with autofocus.

Based in Espoo, Finland, Pixieray is revealing its project, funding, item vision, and other particulars today for the 1st time.

CEO Niko Eiden mentioned in an interview with VentureBeat that the company’s optical option to eyeglasses will give ideal vision to the wearer in all use contexts. A regular eyeglass lens is a mechanical and optical compromise, with fixed focal points. Pixieray’s adaptive option, on the other hand, frequently adjusts the focal point and applies the best correction. This reduces eye strain and substantially increases user comfort, he mentioned.

“We actually realized that the technology has progressed quite a bit from the miniaturization perspective and the power perspective,” Eiden mentioned. “We learned that we could do glasses in a completely new way. That’s why we started Pixieray. We want to transform existing glasses and make the best glasses the market has ever seen.”

Shipping in 2023

The company’s 1st item is not coming for a though, but the organization has a prototype. The purpose is to allow people today with a farsighted eyeglass prescription to study and work with optimal vision, removing cumbersome multifocals and the need to have to switch eyeglasses. Optical strength can be adjusted by the wearer more than time to match adjustments in their vision. Pixieray technologies also considerably increases the clear field of view compared to multifocal lenses.

“From an adaptability perspective, we will understand what you’re looking at, and then we will be adjusting the glasses accordingly,” Eiden mentioned. “It’s a continuous loop that will be taking place. So for people working on a computer screen, they will get the best perspective for the computer screen. If you’re looking far out, you will have the best possible glasses for driving, and and if you’re reading, you will again have the best possible glasses.”

The organization plans to expand somewhat to about 10 people today. The glasses are anticipated to ship in 2023. That’s a realistic timeline, but it could give competitors a opportunity to catch up, now that everyone knows what the strategy is. The organization will not disclose its tech or its item for some time nevertheless. But the organization does say its item will not resemble virtual reality or augmented reality headsets or glasses.

Pixieray is hiring across many positions in engineering and operations. The investors incorporate Maki.vc (Finland), First Fellow (Finland), Amazon Alexa Fund (U.S.), Firstminute capital (U.K.), Bragiel Brothers (U.S.), and person investors David Helgason (Denmark), Ilkka Paananen (Finland), and John Lindfors (Hong Kong, China).

Eiden previously worked at Microsoft, Varjo, and CERN. Other founders incorporate COO Rebecca Xu, CTO Klaus Melakari, and Ville Miettinen, whose title is chief algorithm officer. Jocelyn Faubert, a professor and director of the Faubert Lab at the Université de Montréal, serves as an adviser.

“Pixieray has a world class team with track records in solving complex technology problems on behalf of customers,” mentioned Paul Bernard, director of the Amazon Alexa Fund, in a statement. “The team has a compelling vision (pardon the pun) for advancing the state of the art in corrective eyewear in a way that moves computing to the background and makes it truly ambient. We look forward to working with Niko and team to help make their vision a reality.”

New board, new hires

Eiden mentioned he believes the technologies can make a distinction for millions of people today about the world who rely on eyeglasses in each day life. To aid address this challenge, the organization is adding two new board members, Risto Siilasmaa of First Fellow Partners (and former chairman of Nokia) and Ilkka Kivimaki of Maki.vc.

Pixieray is hiring new recruits in the Helsinki area. The founders began the organization just a month ago but have been considering about the tech for a though.

The glasses could be especially valuable for people today who have jobs like welding that entail wearing helmets, ski masks, virtual reality goggles, or diving goggles. But the purpose is to crack the normal glasses market place 1st.

The glasses likely do not have to adjust the lenses that frequently — no more than one hundred milliseconds or longer. That is not that tough to do, Eiden mentioned, as a person’s eyes move quite slow. It could be paired with a mobile phone, especially if it needs connectivity or more processing energy. But the intent is to make them really feel no distinctive than ordinary glasses.

The organization will companion with a manufacturer that can make the glasses. But the organization will have to ideal them 1st.

“The way we work is to take existing components — not products but technologies and features — and we combine the stuff in a completely new way,” Xu mentioned in an interview. “We take a much faster approach.”

This could be timely, considering the fact that Eiden mentioned our eyes have been having worse.

“The traditional conventional correction method for a pair of spectacles is typically providing static optical power,” he mentioned. “Pixieray lenses adjust optical power on the fly. We provide optical power at the point of where the user is looking.”

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz