A columnist for Forbes recently proclaimed, “Every major tech company is now working on smart glasses.” That includes Google, Facebook, Intel, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple.
Innovega may be the key to making these companies’ plans a reality.
Innovega has created “smart” contact lenses and glasses that can deliver high-performance Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences.
This company has a massive IP portfolio, including 14 issued patents and 13 pending patents. These patents protect everything from its contact lenses to optical systems to gaze-tracking technology.
Furthermore, Innovega has been awarded more than $6 million in U.S. government contracts. And its early customers include The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Eye Institute, and a global provider of designer eyewear.
Led by a team with a history of successful exits, Innovega has already completed pre-clinical testing of its contact lenses and glasses. Now clinical trials aimed at securing FDA clearance are underway. And the company is seeking capital to fund the commercial launch of its technology.
Over the next few years, revenue from the AR/VR market is expected to grow by more than 500%, reaching $97 billion by 2025.
A big part of this market includes “smart” glasses equipped with these technologies. As mentioned, all the biggest tech companies are busy developing products that will have these capabilities. As Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, said, “We all want glasses, or eventually contact lenses, that look and feel normal, but let us overlay all kinds of information and digital objects on top of the real world.”
Investors appear to see the value of AR/VR technologies. While tech giants like Apple and Facebook are already worth hundreds of billions of dollars, smaller companies focused on the AR/VR markets have become considerably valuable. For example:
• Microvision (MVIS), a company developing laser optic technology, has a market cap of $752 million.
• Vuzix (VUZI), a supplier of wearable AR/VR technology, has a $424 million market cap.
• And Kopin (KOPN), a company known for display devices for mobile electronics, has a market cap of more than $230 million.
Innovega could potentially become just as valuable. That’s because this company has succeeded where others have failed.
So far, companies have failed to deliver suitable smart glasses. Their designs are either minimalistic goggles that have low resolution and a narrow field of view, or bulky headsets that are obtrusive, and impractical for most applications. As Innovega suggests, analysts forecast high growth in all AR/VR markets if designers can deliver smart glasses that users actually want to wear.
The company’s glasses may be the solution. Its proprietary contact lens and glasses are presented as lightweight, stylish, high-performance display eyewear. Here’s how they work:
The contact lenses are soft and disposable. Incorporated in them is a powerful micro-lens and a series of light-polarizing filters. The lenses are matched to lightweight digital eyewear that, together, can be used for AR/VR experiences.
In addition to these experiences, the eyewear are designed to improve the lives of the visually impaired. This includes the more than 60% of Americans who require some form of vision correction. In a third-party test, visually impaired patients wearing Innovega’s smart eyewear achieved roughly 20/20 vision at near and far distances.
Innovega doesn’t plan on selling its lenses and glasses directly to consumers. Instead, it will allow established contact lens manufacturers to license its technology. It will also allow glasses manufacturers to co-develop, design, and sell their own eyewear that incorporates Innovega technology. The company will charge fees and royalties in exchange for the use of its technology.
Innovega has developed three working configurations of its eyewear. It’s also secured approval to enable on-eye demonstration of its fourth-generation contact lenses and a portfolio of display eyewear prototypes.