Luxexcel and Optiswiss announce cooperation for 3D printed smart eyewear

Basel, Switzerland and Eindhoven, The Netherlands – September 8th, 2021 – Optiswiss, the leading Swiss lens manufacturer with distribution throughout Europe, has partnered with Luxexcel to bring commercial 3D printed lenses to market for use in regular eyewear and smart glasses. Under the partnership, Luxexcel will provide its breakthrough 3D printing lens technology, and Optiswiss will 3D print prescription lenses for the smart eyewear market. Optiswiss will also implement the newly released Luxexcel VisionPlatform™ 7 at its industrial facility in Basel, Switzerland. This shared strategy will accelerate the delivery of “Swiss-made” prescription lenses that are ideal for smart eyewear devices.

As one of Europe’s largest ophthalmic laboratories, Optiswiss will use VisionPlatform 7 to provide a production facility for customers, to manufacture prescription lenses and accelerate the launch of their smart eyewear devices. The platform 3D prints a variety of prescription smart lens solutions for Augmented Reality smartglasses and switchable sunglasses in a form factor similar to traditional eyewear.

Samuel Frei, CEO at Optiswiss said, “We’re excited to join Luxexcel in their journey to deliver prescription lenses for smart eyewear. After several years of cooperation with Luxexcel, it was time for us to bring the new VisionPlatform™ 7 to our production plant. We now have a digital manufacturing platform to combine prescription lenses with smart technology today, including a clear path towards large volume manufacturing of prescription smart glasses. At Optiswiss we are innovators and always at the forefront of technology. Together with Luxexcel we will develop pioneering products and bring them to market quickly. By adopting innovative technologies such as VisionPlatform™ 7, we can provide our customers with solutions for prescription smart eyewear, giving them an edge over the competition.”

Optiswiss chose VisionPlatform™ 7 because of the high-quality ophthalmic lenses that the platform produces. Another reason is the operational simplicity that the platform provides, as it replaces many process steps of traditional lens manufacturing with a one-step process. The platform provides further efficiencies such as 3D printing the hard-coating as part of the printing process.

Fabio Esposito, CEO at Luxexcel said, “We found a partner in Optiswiss that shares our vision to be at the forefront of innovation in the smart eyewear industry. The combination of our technology and the experience of Optiswiss as a lens manufacturer ensures that smart eyewear producers can bring to market smart devices that addresses the needs of those with prescriptions.”

A pioneer in 3D printed lens technology, Luxexcel specifically developed VisionPlatform™ 7 to fulfill a need in the smart eyewear industry for a digital technology solution to manufacture prescription smart lenses on a mass scale. VisionPlatform™ 7 consists of patented hardware, software, materials, processes, and support – all the components required to ensure mass production and distribution of prescription smart lenses.

About Luxexcel  
Luxexcel is the world’s only technology provider for 3D printed commercial lenses. Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of consumer smart eyewear by meeting the needs of more than 75% of the adult world population requiring prescription lenses. We enable this with our patented 3D printing manufacturing platform. Original equipment and device manufacturers use our platform to design and produce custom, lightweight, smart prescription eyewear on-demand and in a fashionable form factor suitable for the mass market. Luxexcel’s head office is based in The Netherlands, with branch offices in Belgium and the United States.

About Optiswiss
Optiswiss (www.optiswiss.com) has been manufacturer of ophthalmic lenses since 1937 and has its technology and production site in Basel, Switzerland. As a result of constant growth and innovations over the past decades, Optiswiss is today the leading lens manufacturer in Switzerland and, as the biggest independent ophthalmic lab in Europe, an internationally active company, operating throughout Europe.

‘Swiss made’ is not only the production site, it is also our philosophy – only the latest technologies, strict quality control and well-developed logistics are used. Optiswiss is a successful, extremely dynamic company that concentrates on developing, manufacturing, marketing and selling high tech spectacle lenses. Our values include innovative, solution-orientated thinking, providing high quality products with a clear focus on a customer-oriented service.

Media Contact 
Eva Flipse Marketing Manager – Luxexcel
hello[at]luxexcel.com

Innoactive Launches VR Training Visionary Roundtable

participating corporations…

TL:DR - On November 18, 2019, VR/AR Association Germany moderated a full day roundtable on Enterprise VR learning . Representatives from Transportation, Energy, Logistics and Aviation attended to better understand the challenges and benefits of scalable immersive training

First a Little Background

VR training for employees has numerous benefits which is convincing more and more companies to consider the technology as it evolves and awareness grows. However, Virtual Reality is still novel to most workplaces and therefore not as easily integrated into standard training procedures. Adopting VR comes with its challenges and hurdles just as regular innovation does. How can we fix this? Consequently, we have decided to help tackle this problem by uniting like-minded peers who are at the forefront of discussing VR in their organisation. Together with HTC and Unity and the support of VRARA, Innoactive has launched a platform for industry professionals which gives them the opportunity to exchange best practices. We decided to create our VR Training Visionary Roundtable

Structure of the Event

The main discussion is in the form of a classic roundtable which gathers a group of like minded visionaries from different industries. By doing so, we unite them to exchange about overcoming VR training adoption hurdles together. The moderated roundtables are designed to open a discussion amongst participants to help them overcome VR Adoption hurdles. These hurdles include difficulty with hardware roll out, content distribution and permissions, funding, workers safety issues and much more. As a result of listening and engaging with industry professionals, the community works together to solve these hurdles.

The Roundtable also incorporates “demo” sessions at the end of the event. During these sessions, participants can try out each other’s VR training solutions. As well as this, a dedicated Best Practices Instance on the Innoactive Hub aggregates the VR Trainings and allows all the Event Community members to access and try diverse applications.

One Final Thought

The next step of the VR Training Visionary Roundtable includes a workshop for storyboarding and calculating business cases. This gives participants the opportunity to get inspired before designing their next Virtual Reality training. In doing so participants can also learn new ways of estimating the value of a business case.

From VR Training Newbie to Rollout Master in 4 Days

https://www.vr-training-summit.innoactive.de/

LAST CALL – Just over 24hrs left to submit for Aurea Award in Immersive Entertainment

The next Aurea Award ceremony and professional conference will take place on Jan. 15 - 16, 2020 at Europa-Park, where shortlisted state of the art experiences will not only show where the industry is all headed, but will also be pitched live on stage in front of an all-star Jury. All stakeholders from the entertainment sector from startups to investors, and creatives to corporates are invited to get involved and help the community grow.

Interested in applying? Submissions are open until midnight November 15, 2019!
Interested in attending? By invitation only. Request a spot here.

About Aurea Award
With just 5 AUREA awards up for grabs, film projects, music experiences, live events, games, mixed reality experiences as well as enabling technologies receive center stage in front of a crowd VR & AR enthusiasts. Besides showcasing and awarding the most exciting products and experiences, the conference also delivers thought-leader talks, candid discussions on panels and a slew of workshops, while leaving room plenty of room for networking and enjoyment. In the setting of one of the world's leading theme parks, the conference offers multiple opportunities for groundbreakers to be heard and seen, to connect to the most relevant pioneers in the ecosystem and to become a part of the vibrant AUREA community. 
https://aurea-award.com/

About VRARA
The VR/AR Association is an international organization designed to facilitate collaboration between innovative companies and people in the VR and AR ecosystem that accelerates growth, fosters research and education, helps develop industry standards, connects member organizations and promotes the services of member companies. Over 4500 companies, brands, school and 27,000 professionals are registered with VRARA and more than 20 committees are working on best practices and guidelines for the industry.
https://www.thevrara.com/

Get your Company Featured in our VR AR Ecosystem Reports

VRARA's 50+ Chapters are producing industry reports on the regional VR/AR ecosystems to promote companies and organizations involved with immersive technologies and media from NYC to Sydney, across the world.  The reports will be promoted by VRARA and our partners reaching potentially a 1M audience. 

Would you be interested to have your company featured in these report or sponsor the report? If yes, then let us know at info@thevrara.com 

Each report will specifically highlight the following:

• Size of the local ecosystem market

• Number of relevant companies in the ecosystem

• List of companies and company info (size: number of employees, revenue; vertical, customers)

• Reasons why company is based in the local ecosystem

• Needs and hopes from and for the ecosystem

If you have any questions or are interested in being featured or sponsor, please reply to this email or email info@thevrara.com

Südwestdeutsche Medienholding Executive Meeting Sonthofen - Germany

By Michael Rava, VRARA Swiss Chapter President

At the 2017 executive meeting in Sonthofen, Michael Rava of VRARA Swiss Chapter had the opportunity to present. Michael is also the CMO of WION, which is part of the Swiss Professional Media (Basel, Switzerland) and of the Südwestdeutsche Medienholding (SWMH - Munich, Germany). The holding unites several dozens companies in the field of publishing, radio stations, marketing companies and tech enterprises.

Michael had the opportunity to speak in two break out sessions about VR/AR/MR to a broad audience. Everyone was invited to go for a test drive with the HTC Vive and the HoloLens.

Besides the keynote and demoing there was time for socializing and connecting with other decision makers in the holding. The upcoming weeks and months several follow-up meetings will take place.

WION as a market dominator and Michael as a key-influencer will push VR/AR technology forward in Switzerland and Germany.

Whether you are a fresh new start-up, established small business or a large corporation, we would be happy to get in touch and see what we can achieve together! We all look forward to celebrate joint successes with you! Email Michael Rava at mr@thevrara.com