Japanese company Kubota Vision plans to begin selling its smart glasses that treats myopia to Asian markets in the second half of 2021.
What is Myopia?
Myopia is a refractive vision disorder, and occurs when the length of the eye is too great, making the cornea and retina too far apart.
This results in blurry vision from a distance.
How does wearing a pair of glasses fix the issue of nearsightedness?
Kubota Glasses project an image from the glasses’ lens onto the wearer’s eye, which adjust the distance between the cornea and the retina.
The company said that wearing the glasses for 60 to 90 minutes per day corrects myopia.
According to a press release on May 17, 2020, a clinical study conducted on 12 young adults between the ages of 21 and 32 found that the projection of myopically defocused images onto the subjects’ eyes led to decreases in the lengths of their eyes.
In an Aug. 24, 2020 press release, Kubota announced that they had successfully completed a proof-of-concept (POC) clinical study that confirmed the findings of the initial study could be replicated with a wearable device — the smart glasses.
On Dec. 16, Kubota announced that it had completed the first spectacle-style wearable prototype.
The company will continue to conduct further clinical studies to verify the changes in eye length caused by the image projection over a longer period of time.
It also said that it is working on product design improvements, and plans to have additional clinical studies for regulatory approvals.
In these further clinical trials, Kubota will also try to determine how long the correction lasts after the wearer uses the smart glasses, as well as how many days in total the glasses must be worn in order to permanently correct the myopia.
Are there any plans to roll out the smart glasses?
The company plans to begin rolling out the smart glasses to Asian markets — including Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Malaysia — in the second half of 2021.
Kubota will reportedly conduct clinical tests on about 25 people in the U.S.
Is Kubota developing technology for people that don’t like wearing glasses?
According to its website, Kubota also plans to develop a smart contact lens to correct myopia with the Kubota Glasses technology.
