PixelOptics Inc., a start-up developing specialized glasses for presbyopia, has received bridge funding of $465,000 from Life Science Angels Inc. Chief Executive Ron Blum said the company's intention is to roll the committed money into a planned Series A round of between $6 million and $15 million which he slated to close by the end of the year.

The angel money is budgeted to fund operations costs until the Series A which is expected to go towards the engineering of PixelOptics' Electro-active Converging Lens platform into wearable glasses. The technology aims to address presbyopia, the near universal weakening of the eyes which accompanies middle age.

PixelOptics envisions conventional even "fashionable" glasses that appear normal but with have "dynamic" lenses that adjust to the wearer's field of vision. Blum said they will use about as much power as a hearing aid. He declined to say when they would be available.

PixelOptics has a head start on most angel funded companies. Ron Blum said he co-invented the technology and licensed it to Johnson & Johnson Inc. in 2002. Roanoke, Va.-based PixelOptics was able to reacquire the technology this year as part of the fallout when Johnson & Johnson sold its lens business to public lens giant Essilor International SA. Blum said the start-up benefits from J&J's investment in the technology.

In conjunction with the angel investment Anne Degheest of LSA joined the PixelOptics board. The technology, she said, addresses a "need that everyone in this country has."

Currently treatments for presbyopia include bifocals and progressive lenses. Asked if surgical procedures designed to address the problem would be tough competition for his glasses, Blum was dismissive. "You gotta have surgery and you gotta have your lens taken out of your eye. Come on."