Joint Research Lab for Smart Glasses to Launch With $50M Investment

Politenico di Milano and Milan-based lens technology and eyewear manufacturer EssilorLuxottica will establish a joint smart eyewear lab, aimed at designing smart glasses technology. The partnership provides initial investments of over €50 million ($51.1 million).

The EssilorLuxottica Smart Eyewear Lab will initially last five years and employ over 100 researchers and scientists.

According to the partners, the lab will host R&D activities for the next generation of connected glasses, combining digital technologies with bioengineering, physics of matter, and AI skills.

The project’s main challenge will be the development of core hardware, software, and application technologies to enable humans to interact with the digital world.

The EssilorLuxottica Smart Eyewear Lab’s industrial research and experimental development will be divided into five macro-objectives: analysis and development of electronic and photonic components, as well as algorithms to acquire, process, and offer real-world information via augmented reality to the user. Their development will integrate the technology within various prototype glasses by developing materials, charging systems, and algorithms to certify performance in real environments.

EssilorLuxottica and the Politecnico di Milano also aim to jointly create an ad hoc curriculum fostering the development of increasingly specific skills in the wearable and smart eyewear field to align with the lab’s research activities.

News of the eyewear lab’s development comes after ZEISS announced its investment into Morrow Eyewear July 13. Morrow, based in Ghent, Belgium, is developing "autofocal" glasses that allow a wearer to switch between near vision and distance vision at the touch of a button.

After Zeiss announced its investment into Morrow, a Belgian startup developing "autofocal" glasses that allow a wearer to switch between near vision and distance vision at the touch of a button, Politecnico di Milano and EssilorLuxottica formed a partnership to establish a joint smart eyewear lab. Courtesy of the ZEISS Group.

The company’s liquid crystal technology is embedded between two lenses and can be activated by applying a small dose of electrical power, which in turn instructs the liquid crystal to refract light in a predetermined manner.