Finnish Startup IXI Plans New Autofocusing Eyeglasses (cnn.com) 44
An anonymous reader shared this report from CNET:
Finland-based IXI Eyewear has raised more than $40 million from investors, including Amazon, to build glasses with adaptive lenses that could dynamically autofocus based on where the person wearing them is looking. In late 2025, the company said it had developed a glasses prototype that weighs just 22 grams. It includes embedded sensors aimed at the wearer's eyes and liquid crystal lenses that respond accordingly. According to the company, the autofocus is "powered by technology hidden within the frame that tracks eye movements and adjusts focus instantly — whether you're looking near or far..."
iXI told CNN in a story published on Tuesday that it expects to launch its glasses within the next year. It has a waitlist for the glasses on its website, but has not said in what regions they'll be available...
This type of technology is also being pursued by Japanese startups Elcyo and Vixion. Vixion already has a product with adaptive lenses embedded in the middle of the lenses (they do not resemble standard glasses).
CNET spoke to optometrist Meenal Agarwal, who pointed out that besides startup efforts, there have also been research prototypes like Stanford's autofocal glasses. "But none have consumer-ready, lightweight glasses in the market yet."
CNN reports on the 75-person company's product, noting that "By using a dynamic lens, IXI does away with fixed magnification areas." "Modern varifocals have this narrow viewing channel because they're mixing basically three different lenses," said Niko Eiden, CEO of IXI... So, there are areas of distortion, the sides of the lenses are quite useless for the user, and then you really have to manage which part of this viewing channel you're looking at." The IXI glasses, Eiden said, will have a much larger "reading" area for close-up vision — although still not as large as the entire lens — and it will also be positioned "in a more optimal place," based on the user's standard eye exam. But the biggest plus, Eiden added, is that most of the time, the reading area simply disappears, leaving the main prescription for long distance on the entire lens. "For seeing far, the difference is really striking, because with varifocals you have to look at the top part of the lens in order to see far. With ours, you have the full lens area to see far..."
The new glasses won't come without drawbacks, Eiden admits: "This will be yet another product that you need to charge," he said. Although the charging port is magnetic and cleverly hidden in the temple area, overnight charging will be required... Another limitation is that more testing is required to make the glasses safe for driving, Eiden said, adding that in case of a malfunction of the electronics or the liquid crystal area, the glasses are equipped with a failsafe mode that shuts them down to the base state of the main lens, which would usually be distance vision, without creating any visual disturbances.
iXI told CNN in a story published on Tuesday that it expects to launch its glasses within the next year. It has a waitlist for the glasses on its website, but has not said in what regions they'll be available...
This type of technology is also being pursued by Japanese startups Elcyo and Vixion. Vixion already has a product with adaptive lenses embedded in the middle of the lenses (they do not resemble standard glasses).
CNET spoke to optometrist Meenal Agarwal, who pointed out that besides startup efforts, there have also been research prototypes like Stanford's autofocal glasses. "But none have consumer-ready, lightweight glasses in the market yet."
CNN reports on the 75-person company's product, noting that "By using a dynamic lens, IXI does away with fixed magnification areas." "Modern varifocals have this narrow viewing channel because they're mixing basically three different lenses," said Niko Eiden, CEO of IXI... So, there are areas of distortion, the sides of the lenses are quite useless for the user, and then you really have to manage which part of this viewing channel you're looking at." The IXI glasses, Eiden said, will have a much larger "reading" area for close-up vision — although still not as large as the entire lens — and it will also be positioned "in a more optimal place," based on the user's standard eye exam. But the biggest plus, Eiden added, is that most of the time, the reading area simply disappears, leaving the main prescription for long distance on the entire lens. "For seeing far, the difference is really striking, because with varifocals you have to look at the top part of the lens in order to see far. With ours, you have the full lens area to see far..."
The new glasses won't come without drawbacks, Eiden admits: "This will be yet another product that you need to charge," he said. Although the charging port is magnetic and cleverly hidden in the temple area, overnight charging will be required... Another limitation is that more testing is required to make the glasses safe for driving, Eiden said, adding that in case of a malfunction of the electronics or the liquid crystal area, the glasses are equipped with a failsafe mode that shuts them down to the base state of the main lens, which would usually be distance vision, without creating any visual disturbances.
Yah but (Score:5, Insightful)
> Another limitation is that more testing is required to make the glasses safe for driving
How will testing help? When driving it helps to simultaneously see far clearly and the dashboard instruments clearly. If I’m understanding correctly, the glasses won’t support that.
Re:Yah but (Score:5, Informative)
If this was a product from a established company it would just be stupid.
Though the competing product Vixion was created by an established company, Hoya (Japanese multinational, 35000 employees). The product started development in 2015 and sells in Japan since 2018. The company was spun off in 2021. It is available from over 50 locations across Japan from the chains Yodobashi Camera, and Bic Camera. https://vixion.jp/company/?wov... [vixion.jp]
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If by theoretical you mean "proven functional over a decade ago" then sure https://opg.optica.org/oe/full... [optica.org]
Products with this have already been developed and are undergoing clinical performance testing. Not by some random startup, but by established players. Also even the EC contributed 2.5million EUR in funding for testing such glasses.
This isn't some pie in the sky idea, it's an application of a very real functional lens design that is over a decade old, combined with eye tracking features developed for
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The theoretical lab portion of this was done in 2012. This has moved way beyond that. Functioning clear lenses have been developed including by optics companies who provide lenses to among others, glasses manufacturers.
The "proof of concept" here would be combining existing things that very much have been developed by different industries. It's no where near as theoretical as most of the proof-of-concept things you read about in scientific papers.
Science isn't black and white. There's a lot of grey, and thi
Re: Yah but (Score:2)
Re:Yah but (Score:5, Informative)
If you can simultaneously focus on both far and near objects, you are definitely not human. That's not how eyes work at all.
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If you can simultaneously focus on both far and near objects, you are definitely not human. That's not how eyes work at all.
Your frame of reference is off.
(see what I did there?)
To spell it out: that’s not how graduated lenses work. The startup is trying to replace such lenses - not the eyes themselves!
Such lenses depend on near simultaneous refocusing - via up and down eye movement - not actually simultaneous.
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> Another limitation is that more testing is required to make the glasses safe for driving
How will testing help? When driving it helps to simultaneously see far clearly and the dashboard instruments clearly. If I’m understanding correctly, the glasses won’t support that.
The tracking mechanism will estimate the focal distance needed for what you're looking at, whether that be the dashboard or the road. The testing is needed to (1) quantify the estimation error and associated conditional probabilities and (2) the safety of the fail-safe fallback in the case of car driving. The basic design is already there. That's why it's mainly the testing that is needed, especially across all the different prescriptions, faces, environments, and uses cases.
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> Another limitation is that more testing is required to make the glasses safe for driving
How will testing help? When driving it helps to simultaneously see far clearly and the dashboard instruments clearly. If I’m understanding correctly, the glasses won’t support that.
The tracking mechanism will estimate the focal distance needed for what you're looking at, whether that be the dashboard or the road. The testing is needed to (1) quantify the estimation error and associated conditional probabilities and (2) the safety of the fail-safe fallback in the case of car driving. The basic design is already there. That's why it's mainly the testing that is needed, especially across all the different prescriptions, faces, environments, and uses cases.
That makes certainly makes a lot of sense, but, with bifocals, the eye unconsciously get both fields of vision “for free” without movement, albeit not all in perfect focus, and, this is crucial, the brain learns to algorithmically “deblur” the out-of-focus fields at least somewhat based on focus direction using deeply wired unconscious mechanisms without physical refocusing. It’ll be interesting to know if that’s important. Deblurring isn’t nearly as capable as phy
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I figure they reckon you don't need to see the dashboard that badly (Teslas dont even have dashboards).. and besides usually the speed is shown big and clearly enough that you can ascertain your speed or when something important like a tire pressure warning or check engine appears. I mean if you're that frigging blind you shouldn't be driving. Nothing important on any car display requires perfect version. Secondarily, what's the chances your glasses fail AND you get a tire pressure warning or something like
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Dashboards are far enough away anyway to not run into problems with people's presbyopia anyway. Even older eyes can see dashboards normally.
Re: Yah but (Score:1)
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As specified, the glasses would support that.
This is a solution for presbyopia instead of something like progressive lenses. Which kind of suck for driving because the dashboard isn't really close enough to be right for the 'reading' part, but that's the part of your vision it occupies, and especially likely to be in the distorted areas to the sides of the lower part of the lense.
These glasses would, in theory, monitor your gaze and depth and adjust accordingly to compensate for the lack of your own abilit
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There's no "simultaneously see far clearly and the dashboard instruments" as the other comments told you, sure it HELPS to have distance and near vision corrected (we're talking here specifically about a different correction needed) when driving depending where you look, but it isn't required or critical to operate the vehicle. Now many people would have bi/vari-focals because let's face it mobile phones but it isn't that much of a deal to drive a vehicle with just distance glasses even when you need readin
I have no problem at all with my varifocals (Score:1)
Certainly no problems that could be fixed by making them more expensive, heavier, laggy, unpredictable and subject to batteries going flat.
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There you go, thinking selfishly about yourself again. What about the poor venture capitalists who've invested millions into these companies, hoping to get richer? What about poor Amazon? Can you not spend a few seconds to think about their need for more money?
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Of course the latter will be fixed by Essilor or Zeiss buying the company and killing it or making sure this is sold as a "premium" option. They already do that with their premium varifocal lenses, which realistically could be offered at around €1
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Ugh, I'm generally annoyed by my varifocals. Having to move my head around and do a head tilt if something is close to me but higher than nearby things usually are... And that distortion to the lower sides...
I'd love a solution that worked in practice like these things claim to in theory. Subject, of course, to it actually working well, silently,
They claim 22g, which would be a respectable weight.
I'm not going to be getting on a wait/pre-order list or anything, but if they deliver as promised, I certainly
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Yeah, working closely with vari-focals on something you can't put on your desk or in your lap is crazy house. Luckily a lot of mechanical work is anyway done half blindly and partly by touch because other parts or tools or your hands are in the way, or the lighting isn't the best just in the corner you're trying to work and so on.
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It is mentioned in the summary. The stated difference is the Vixion product "do[es] not resemble standard glasses".
IANAO (optometrist), but... (Score:2)
I do wear glasses to read. I don't think I'd want these adaptive glasses.
Re:IANAO (optometrist), but... (Score:5, Insightful)
I wear trifocals, I'd be very interested. Failing to distance vision would not be a problem while driving. You are supposed to be looking out the window anyway. The dashboard is at the medium distance lens, the only thing at reading distance is the steering wheel and it's not interesting.
Presbyopia is a pain in the ass and at present the only cure is to rip the lense out and put in a multifocal and hope for the best.
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You wouldn't wear them until your own reflex of accommodation is already failing. If you have aged up into reading glasses, your eyes are already not focusing on their own.
From the looks of it, basically it's normal glasses that when it detects 'reading distance' threshold, turns some part of the lense to reading glasses. So it's like part-time bifocals, not something continuously adjusting to just the right distance. Which makes sense unless you have a more complicated eye exam to get corrections across
How does it know? (Score:3)
"powered by technology hidden within the frame that tracks eye movements and adjusts focus instantly — whether you're looking near or far..."
If you're reading something, it will be able to figure out the distance and adjust accordingly. But if you're in let's say Colorado and looking across the plains to the Rockies, how does it know if you're looking at the Rockies or the plain? Or maybe a herd of pronghorn grazing on the plain? What if you're looking into the viewfinder of a camera? You want the object you're photographing to be in focus, not the eye piece.
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But if you're in let's say Colorado and looking across the plains to the Rockies, how does it know if you're looking at the Rockies or the plain? Or maybe a herd of pronghorn grazing on the plain?
I suspect it would do what photographers do when they want a deep range of focus - take advantage of hyperfocal distance [wikipedia.org]. But standard eyeglasses already do this now.
What if you're looking into the viewfinder of a camera?
That's an interesting question. Or, for that matter - what if you're looking through a window that is partially obscured / frosted / has decorations on it?
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The distance lense on my trifocals works for everything past three feet out. The reading lens is good from 6 inches to about 16 inches, the middle lens is from 16 inches to the three feet including the desktop computer monitor.
Re:How does it know? (Score:5, Informative)
The mountains and the plain are at the same focal distance. It's not linear. A young person's perfectly functioning biological eyeball naturally relaxes to a focus of about 6 m (20 ft) which is fine for anything that far or further.
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Re: How does it know? (Score:2)
Thereâ(TM)s something called hyper focal length: the shortest distance at which a lens can focus and keep infinity in focus. Aperture size affects this, so depth of field gets worse in low light when the aperture (or human pupil) is larger. As for camera view finders, they have a focus adjustment.
But youâ(TM)re right: how will it know what youâ(TM)re looking at? Look at all the photos people take where the subject is out of focus and the background is in sharp focus. My middle aged eyes r
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You are overestimating the precision. From reading, it seems more like it decides if it should be 'normal' prescription across the lense or if it should change a lot of the lens to 'reading glasses'. Looks like a boolean. Basically bifocals with only part-time reading area, with the reading area made much larger since it is only sometimes active.
I suppose if you are using viewfinder and not a screen, you have a potential point, though I imagine the logic for the glasses could treat being within a couple of
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Everything from a few meters to Andromeda Galaxy (the furthest you can regularly see with the naked eye) is the same focus for the human eye.
If you look through a camera viewfinder you take out the glasses and use the camera viewfinder diopter adjustment. You don't need to adjust your eyes/glasses to see a clear image, just the camera focus itself depending where the subject is (this has nothing to do with your eyesight you need to do it anyway for a sharp picture).
Battery powered? (Score:1)
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Sounds like the intent is that when the battery runs out, it changes from auto-bifocal to just plain glasses. Not exactly a horrible outcome...
Do they help with correcting vision ? (Score:2)
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As described, it sounds like they have some typical prescription, and then just like bifocals there's a near vision adjustment. The difference is that the electronics will detect if something is in the 'reading' distance range and auto change part of the lens to reading glasses.
IXI need to decide... (Score:2)
IXI need to decide whether they are committed to EITHER startup OR Finnish.
But seriously, if you're driving and an insect or arachnid INSIDE the vehicle moves into your vision, fairly nearby, do you get to choose to focus on the road instead?