In the meeting, many research results were presented, both public and private entities, all related to different applications in various fields of optics. Indo presented in poster format, the optic principles of the innovative progressive lens called “Maxima”, that is the first commercial output form the work developed in the FP7 project Made4U. (see www.made4U.info).

Indo’s R&D researchers that presented the poster related to the optic principles of the lens “Maxima”. From left to right: Ing. Javier Vegas, PhD Sara Chamadoira and Dr. Manel Espínola

Maxima lenses caused a great interest among the attendees. This innovative lens design takes advantage of the frame contour to optimize the lens thickness and optical performance to an unprecedented improvement of lateral vision field thanks to a reduction of 40% of the lens aberrations as can be seen in the picture below: 

maxima lens and right conventional progressive lens of equal dioptric power

This innovative lens was recently awarded with the nomination to the “Silmo d’Or 2011”  in the lens category.

However, product personalization goes one significant step beyond mass customization. Here, subsequent production lines will need to support the manufacturing of products personalized to end user specifications in all their aspects. That is to say, products only made for and uniquely usable by their individual buyers. Such are exclusively ‘personal’ items. In the ophthalmics industry this type of personalization is still very rare. Until recently, similar products were only feasible in small production volumes, and were (are) mainly manufactured by craftsmen using tools and manual labor.  There are a few known initiatives, where spectacle frames are ‘manually’ personalized to the bearer’s face morphology. However, no production lines are yet known, whereby fully personalized spectacles (frames, lens geometry and treatments) are created with minimal human intervention, and in larger, economically viable, and commercially attractive output production volumes. Notwithstanding, automated production of personalized spectacles in potentially more significant volumes appears quite feasible today, following the work done in the EC funded project Made4U, in which we developed the necessary technologies and systems in support of this objective. 

But one should still raise the question: Why should personalization of spectacles be of any interest to end users, and what are the selling arguments about the added value these new niche and probably pricey products might offer? In the following we shall answer these questions based on our own project experiences to-date.

Download the rest of the article from our downloads section.

It has been equally obvious at the outset that personalized spectacles would have to be initially sold to a distinguished and ‘brand-name’ aware public as niche, high value products. Customers should be attracted to these objects by their quality merits in the first place, but, at the same time, also by the novelty of the new experience during the ‘user co-design” phase. Like having dinner at a high-class restaurant, user experience could not only be left to rely upon the taste and uniqueness of available meals, but equally so upon their presentation on the dish and appropriate silverware used, as well as the whole entourage of waiters, reception, sitting, waiting and serving routines, and, last but not least, the superior atmosphere of the venue premises. In fact, it is all about real and perceived value for money that customers will eventually pay to receive.

It is therefore desirable to conceive the entire buying process of Made4U spectacles as a rather fresh, modern, high-tech, and greatly valued buying experience, somehow comparable to the sale of Apple Inc. products via their own dedicated stores available in the US and elsewhere. Apple’s stylish, innovative, high profile electronic devices are successfully sold at these minimalistic design stores albeit quite functional and user-friendly, where armies of employees (so-called geniuses) are available to patiently serve customers with answers to questions and other assistance.

The New Sales Store concept

Conform such intentions and purposes, Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia (IBV), the Made4U Work Package 2 leader, has developed a new concept of the Made4U “Sales Store”. The new concept will yield an original buying experience for customers, whereby the end-user becomes the co-designer, and therefore he/she actively participates in the frame production process. Via end-user participation, the sales process of eyewear objects, being in fact products, will ultimately turn into the rendering of rather exclusive services. It is also expected that customers, who have been involved in the design process as much, will typically develop a tight ‘emotional connection’ to their personalized eyewear.

IBV distinguishes six phases in the new store concept: Online pre-selection, in-store welcome, selection, user measurements, sensory evaluation, and product delivery.

1. Online Preselection

Customers will typically visit a Made4U certified optician’s webpage to preselect online a few frame designs. Registration of user profile data will allow linking customers to those preselected frames that can be shown to them during a visit to the store at a later moment. Explanatory information and multimedia showcases about frame designs should accompany their online display; as an example, user-friendly and rich content could be provided about end-user physiognomies that would ideally fit various frame shapes (per the general rules of the Tipheret Optomorphism ® method).

2. In-store Welcome 

In-store welcome could materialize via customer interaction with a human agent (optician) or a variety of virtual advisors (avatars). Both, agents and avatars, will guide customers in every step of the frame selection process. During this phase, customers should be able to spend as much time necessary, and should be allowed to wonder around the shop and try-on various frames before arriving at a few preferred shortlisted designs.

3. Selection 

In this stage, the customer’s face is scanned with specialized scanning equipment (anthropometric measurements) and the scanned images are virtually reproduced on a monitor. Based on the image display, a co-design software system provides hints and aesthetic suitability advice about the selected frame designs. Online simulations with those frames superimposed upon virtual representations of a user’s head and face may be also displayed – a sort of virtual try-on. In such online simulations, try-on virtual frames (fast rendered 3D models) may be further adapted to a user’s personal preferences (shape, colour, decoration, etc.)

4. User measurements

Optometric measurements to define corrective prescriptions are taken during this phase. In fact, a user’s aesthetic measurements (phase 3) are kept consciously separate from his/her optometric measurements (correction prescriptions). One reason may be the fact that, as a matter of practice in many countries, quite a few customers visit and receive their corrective prescriptions from ophthalmologists.

5. Sensory Evaluation

In this final co-design phase, users are left alone to make definitive decisions. In online monitors they visualize themselves in various contexts, situations, facial expressions, etc., and they can further try on more virtual variants of their selected frames. They can even share their impressions in real time with family and friends via the Internet, and can see, touch, and feel real samples of their frames of choice to better appreciate their physical and material properties (colour, surface, weight, flexibility, rigidness, etc.)

6. Product Delivery

Customers would naturally prefer to have their spectacles delivered to them very soon after the buying co-design process. It might be realistic to assume that in the not too distant future improved laser sintering equipment with much faster manufacturing speeds than today’s practice will start appearing at opticians’ shops as personalized frame cutters. Fast delivery of new pairs of Made4U spectacles could then become a reality. In the meantime however, and for all sorts of supply chain economics related to the inefficiencies and costs of manufacturing lines, the production of personalized spectacles may be expected to occur within delivery times rather ‘typical’ for the rest of the industry.

Dr. Alexander Osterwalder, EPFL (Lausanne), has recently launched a generic template that can be readily used to create comprehensive and holistic business models. This template Osterwalder calls the Canvas. Such an approach guides businessmen and product strategists in their formulation of the necessary elements that will constitute their bring-to-market business models. Via the Canvas one seeks answers to a number of questions, grouped in two sets. The Demand set, addressing the customer facing aspects of the model and the Supply set, concerned with the resourcing and production aspects of the model:

DEMAND:

1. What is our value proposition (what is our offer and how is it different from competitive offers)?

2. Who is our customer (define targeted market segments)?

3. How do we connect with our customers (customer relationship aspects)?

4. How do we reach our customers with our products (the sales and delivery lifecycle channels)?

5. How do we make money in this process (revenue streams)?

SUPPLY:

6. Which are our Key Activities (platform maintenance, production lines, etc...)?

7. Which are our Key Resources (Intellectual, human, physical assets, brand,...)?

8. Who are our Key Partners in all this?

9. What is our cost structure (so that profits can emerge from the operation)?

As mentioned earlier, the tasks under point 9 above are analyzed in extended detail in WP1. On the other hand, based on the conclusions and recommendations of WP1, the Work Package for Dissemination and Exploitation (WP8) will focus on the remaining aspects of the Osterwalder Canvas for the Made4U consortium to complete the business modeling work needed to accompany the project Plan for Use and Dissemination of Knowledge. 

For additional detail on this approach feel free to download and read the PDF presentation provided in our downloads section.

This design innovation is an original approach by all means, as it is a well-known fact that spectacle frames are traditionally designed and manufactured based on conventional 2D blueprints. The unique design process Indo has been developing during the first two years of Made4U is being deployed along the following phases:

A. Frame Design. Creative frame designers create new frame models depicted by means of traditional 2D blueprints.

B. Design Deconstruction. 2D blueprints are then analysed to define the various frame features and design elements that need to be maintained as invariable (corners, shapes, etc…) and those that should potentially undergo parameterization and adjustments in order to enable user-specific personalization. This process has been called  “Design Deconstruction”. Resizable parts are constrained to vary within acceptable ranges expressed in angles, dimensions, and other geometry elements.

C. Conversion & 3D Modelling. During a subsequent phase, the 2D blueprints are converted into 3D solid forms by applying Constructive Solid Geometry (CSD) techniques, whereby solids interact via Boolean operations to create complex 3D shapes. In parallel, an additional technique (free form trimming) is being pursued to improve fidelity of the resulting 3D geometry to the frame creator’s concept designs and blueprints. The 3D modelling software Indo researchers use in this phase is NX 7.0 from Siemens.

D. 3D Finishing. The process is completed with a final ‘finishing’ phase in order to accommodate other relevant design elements in the parametrical (template) models.

E. Virtual Frame Decoration. Finally, in order to virtually ‘decorate’ the resulting 3D frames, surface textures from a catalogue of recommended decorations are being UV-mapped to the surfaces of the 3D models, and known rendering techniques are subsequently used to depict an impression of the decorated virtual frames.

You can download this Flash movie from our Downloads section.