September 22, 2008 1:00 AM

By Andrew Karp
Group Editor, Lenses and Technology

ROANOKE, Va.--PixelOptics, a Roanoke-based company that primarily develops eyeglasses for presbyopes, will make its debut next month at International Vision Expo West. Company executives said they will unveil a composite "static," or fixed focus lens that is the first in a family of products that includes a new "dynamic" changeable focus lens. Additional product introductions will follow in 2009, they said.

PixelOptics was founded in 2005 by Ronald Blum, OD, an entrepreneur and inventor with more than 30 years optical industry experience. After devoting the past few years to research, development and fundraising, the company has spent 2008 commercializing its business. It now numbers 30 employees, including several optical industry veterans who hold key management positions.

According to Blum, who serves as chairman, president and CEO of PixelOptics, the company's goal is to create highly proprietary lens products that deliver "unprecedented vision correction" while benefiting the industry's full supply channel.

"We seek to achieve four objectives with every innovation," said Blum. "It must be transformational in its function and not just another 'me-too' product; it must genuinely help society by enhancing vision; it must provide a significant profit opportunity to participants in the vision care industry; and it must be patentable." The company has amassed a total of over 200 patents and patent applications in the U.S. and internationally.

Blum created PixelOptics as the business entity for product development and distribution of new electro-active optical technology licensed from a previous company he founded. PixelOptics subsequently licensed the electro-active optical technology, applying the learnings and patents to ophthalmic lenses and ultimately generating numerous global patents and patent applications for composite lens designs, some of which, but not all, are based on electro-optic dynamic technology.

"Our focus is on inventing new ways of combining lens design technologies within a composite lens platform, so that a proprietary optical system is created within the lens that addresses vision problems more accurately and effectively." As a result of this unique amalgamation of technologies within a single lens, wearers enjoy significantly better vision, optics and cosmetics than they're experiencing today, said Blum.

William Spies, chief operating officer of PixelOptics, added, "Our firm belief is that everything we're doing will make the eyecare industry stronger. The patient will see better with a far less compromised vision experience. The eyecare practitioner will be able to offer better vision correction and benefit financially. And both wholesale and retail laboratories will have new products that are innovative and completely differentiated from anything they've been offering for the past 30 to 40 years, bringing new life and excitement to the relationship labs have with their customers."

Spies stressed that to utilize PixelOptics' proprietary composite lens technology, no special equipment needs to be purchased and the eye examination procedure does not need to be modified. He said PixelOptics recognizes the value of free-form technology and sees it as complementary to its focus, designing and fabricating semi-finished blanks that can be processed with or without free-form.

Spies, a past vice president of Essilor and past president of Hoya Lens of America, has over 25 years of industry experience. In addition to Spies, the PixelOptics management team includes a number of optical industry veterans. Bill Kokonaski, chief technology officer and one of the co-inventors of many PixelOptics patents, was formerly director of engineering for the Johnson & Johnson Spectacle Lens Group. Rod Passarelli, vice president, retail sales, previously held the position of national accounts director for Essilor of America and is a past vice president of ophthalmic lenses for Bausch and Lomb. Robin Rhodes, vice president, professional sales, was most recently with the Hoya, North America group and a previous director of sales, Western region, for Carl Zeiss. Dwight Duston, PhD, executive vice president of research and development for PixelOptics, is one of the co-inventors of the electro-dynamic lens technology platform and former head of R&D for the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars). Steve Holt, chief financial officer, was also involved in finance with Johnson & Johnson's Spectacle Lens Group and was most recently a chief financial officer for Interstate Distributor, a $600 million interstate trucking company.

PixelOptics has secured significant financial support from a variety of institutional investors well established in the health care market, including Delphi Ventures, a top tier medical device venture capital firm; The Carlyle Group, a global financial giant which manages $83 billion in assets; Stark Investments, a $14 billion hedge fund with a private equity arm; Life Science Angels, a Silicon Valley angel investors group that continues to provide financial support to PixelOptics; and Panasonic Venture Group, the U.S. venture arm of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, Ltd., better known as Panasonic.

PixelOptics will be exhibiting at Booth #14096 at Vision Expo West.