Why now is the right time for a new single vision lens design

Aalen, Germany | 6 April 2020 | ZEISS Vision Care

For the ZEISS SmartLife lens portfolio ZEISS has also rethought the single vision design. Conventional wisdom is to use a model which concentrates on the eye and the lens. A further dimension has now been added - the observed object in the space.

Where are we looking? Not always into the distance - everyone is clear about that. But until now the majority single vision lenses have been precisely optimized for infinity. Every point in the lens, irrespective of whether it was a stock lens or a customized lens, was calculated for a minimum distance of six meters, and often even calculated for infinity. But in reality, people focus also on closer objects, particularly through the lower part of the lens. Today more than ever.

Our visual behavior has fundamentally changed. The Dynamic Gaze Study conducted by the ZEISS Vision Science Lab¹ in Tübingen also confirmed this finding. Calculations performed showed a significant vertical widening of the gaze distribution, as well as a downward shift in the gaze distribution average. It was also evident that smartphone gazes undergo a significant downward shift relative to the center, straight-line gaze. This means that when viewing a smartphone head movement mimics eye movement less, or barely at all.

It was therefore time that the design of single vision lenses should be fundamentally rethought. As the new ZEISS SmartLife lens portfolio defines exactly this new on-the-move and perpetually connected lifestyle as the basis for a complete portfolio - whatever the customer's age - the new single vision design should be part of this ZEISS SmartLife lens portfolio.

ZEISS has used the findings of the Tübingen study as well as the outcome of market and lifestyle observations to extend the "eye-lens model" by the new "object-space" component now for the calculation of single vision lenses. This has adapted the lens to today's reality - the world outside the eye-lens system is included in the mathematical model. The secret of it all is not to add an addition in the close range as already familiar in progressive lenses, but to recalculate the focus points in the lower part of the lens.

In the past the calculation with focus points at an infinite distance led to aberrations in close work. The recent integration of what have been called "Smart Dynamic Optics" as a component of the ZEISS SmartView technology has produced the advantage that the new single vision design of ZEISS was optimized for the first time for close and distant views. This results in up to 88 percent of larger clear fields of view.² The basic requirement is the highly complex calculation of the lens which involves both the distance of the object and the associated gaze angle over the entire lens surface. Such a highly complex product can only be manufactured with the aid of modern freeform technology.

Thanks to this new single vision design concept, consumers can be certain that the lens is optimized for modern everyday life - in other words for today's gaze behavior at all distances. The values measured by the eye care professional are now achieved not just for distant work but also for near work.

^{SmartLife is a registered trademark of Carl Zeiss Vision GmbH.}