ROANOKE, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The R&D 100 Awards, celebrating 50 years of honoring the 100 most significant new technology products in innovation and excellence, announced today that emPower! eyewear from PixelOptics was named one of the top 100 technology products for 2012.
“We’re truly honored to receive an award that celebrates original achievement in innovation and technology,” said Brett Craig, President and Chief Executive Officer, PixelOptics. “emPower! represents a clear breakthrough in eyewear – leveraging advanced technology to give wearers precise control over their vision for the very first time.”
Since 1963, the R&D 100 Awards have identified revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market. The R&D 100 Awards have long been a benchmark of excellence for industry sectors as diverse as telecommunications, high-energy physics, software, manufacturing, and biotechnology. For industry leaders, government labs, and academic institutions, the awards can be vital for gauging their efforts at commercialization of emerging technologies. In winning an R&D 100 Award, developers often find the push their product needs to find success in the marketplace. The award has identified revolutionary technologies newly introduced to the market, many of which have become household names. From the flashcube (1965), to the liquid crystal display (1980), to the HDTV (1998); these innovations have helped shape everyday life for many Americans.
“Despite a troubled economy, the pace for innovation has remained quickened and the demand for newer and better technology has become even more competitive,” said Rita Peters, Editorial Director of R&D Magazine. In our industry, it is increasingly important to take a moment and recognize excellence in innovation and the promise it presents for our future. We are honored to present PixelOptics with the 2012 R&D 100 award as it has demonstrated a commitment to reinventing its industry.”
The world's first electronic corrective eyewear, emPower! has a near-focus reading zone constructed of an LCD-like material that allows the user to turn the lens magnification on and off at will. Activated manually by touching the frame or automatically with a tilt of the head, emPower! represents a quantum leap forward in vision technology. Targeted to the millions of consumers wearing progressive lenses, emPower! eliminates distortion common with no-line bifocals and gives the user unprecedented control over their vision experience.
This is the second major award bestowed on emPower! in 2012. emPower! was also recently named a 2012 Gold Edison Award winner in the Quality of Life category. Named after Thomas Edison, the Edison Awards represent the best in innovation and excellence in the development of new products and services.
Winners of the R&D 100 Awards are selected by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine. The publication and its online portal serve research scientists, engineers, and other technical staff members at high tech industrial companies and public and private laboratories around the world.
Winners will be recognized at the R&D 100 Awards Banquet on Nov. 1, 2012, in Orlando, Fl. A list of winning innovations is on the R&D 100 Awards website, www.rdmag.com.
About R&D Magazine
Since its founding in 1959 as Industrial Research, R&D Magazine has served research scientists, engineers and technical staff at laboratories around the world, providing timely, informative news and useful technical articles that broaden readers’ knowledge of the research and development industry and improve the quality of their work. R&D Magazine is a publication of Advantage Business Media (www.advantagebusinessmedia.com).
About emPower!
emPower! represents a significant technological advancement in prescription eyewear. The world's first electronic corrective eyewear, emPower! features the most advanced consumer electronics innovations available today, including composite lenses with a thin transparent LCD-like liquid crystal layer, microchips, micro-accelerometers and miniature rechargeable batteries. emPower! eyeglasses look like regular, high-fashion glasses. The microchip, micro-accelerometer, and miniature batteries are hidden inside the temples of the eyeglass frames. The transparent liquid crystal layer in each lens is able to electronically provide near focus lens when needed with no moving parts and without making a sound. emPower! provides clear vision at all distances; far, near and in between. Wearers can operate the eyewear in three different modes: manual on, automatic and manual off. For additional information on emPower! electronic focusing eyeglasses please visit www.emPowerEyeWear.com.
About PixelOptics
Headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, PixelOptics is committed to “transformational innovation” in the spectacle lens industry. The company’s focus is on improving and elevating the current standard of vision correction by inventing, developing and marketing a wide range of innovative new products based on dynamic focusing lenses, innovative lens design technologies, and composite optics. PixelOptics is dedicated to helping consumers see better and more comfortably, while at the same time helping the vision care industry to grow. For additional information on Pixel please visit www.pixeloptics.com, Follow Us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/PixelOptics), Like Us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/PixelOptics) or Subscribe to our YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/pixeloptics).
Major Investors
PixelOptics’ major investors include: The Carlyle Group, Delphi Ventures, Longitude Capital, Panasonic Ventures, Safeguard Scientifics, and Stark Investments.