New Electronic Bifocals Arrive In Tulsa

Ben Franklin is generally thought to have created the first pair of bifocals. Folks who need them know they correct for both near and far vision in one pair of eyeglasses.

But one thing I'm sure Ben Franklin never dreamed of are cutting edge bifocals that refocus electronically.

Get ready kids, one of these days you will all develop the need for reading glasses or bifocals. I need them but don't like them because the magnifying part is always there.

When Daniel Brunson of Hicks Brunson Eyewear told me he had this new kind of bifocal, I was interested. These new bifocals can turn on or off the reading or magnifying part - like magic.

"All these are the frames you can use," said Daniel Brunson of the new eyewear.

"You either turn it on when you want or it stays on or the auto focus," he said. "On when you look down; off when you look up."

There is a sensor in the temple piece, and the world's smallest accelerometer emits a tiny charge into a layer of liquid crystals on the front surface of the lens. So, they're bifocals when you need them, single vision when you don't.

So, you're in charge of the eyewear.

The company PixelOptics has been working on this for several years and finally developed the electronics to be small enough and light weight enough to be practical for commercial eyeglasses.

This is so new in Tulsa all he had to show me was the frames and the demo lens. You charge the electronics like your cell phone.

"A charge last two or three days," said Daniel Brunson of Hicks Brunson Eyewear.

As a glasses wearer, it's hard to find the downside - except for maybe the price, about $1,300 dollars. As with all electronics, I suppose that will come down with time. Until then I use the manual system.

Hicks Brunson Eyewear is one of only a handful of shops in the Tulsa area which will be selling the lenses.

To find Tulsa locations for the electronic bifocals, go to the LifeActivated web site and click on the button in the top right that says "find emPower!"