Filling the market gap for customised eye spectacles

When it comes to custom-made glasses, there are no current established technologies and techniques to meet the unique needs and desires or to improve the overall personalization experience for people. What is more, the feasibility of such niche products has not been fully explored.

With EU funding, the MADE4U (Business models for user centred products) project partners developed Key Enabling Technologies for the design and manufacture of highly personalised glasses (lenses and frames). These include a device that automatically captures and processes 3D facial data, tools and techniques that provide information on facial shapes to customise frames, and a lens coating system designed to personalise tinted lenses.

Furthermore, the team researched frame requirements and tailored existing methods and materials to the automatic production of personalised frames. An intelligent distributed manufacturing supply chain was then applied to manage this production.

Based on the developed technology, during the demonstrator phase of the project, which was run in real conditions by two opticians, 160 users were voluntarily scanned and participated in the co-design process of their personalized spectacles.

Lastly, three business models, which were subjected to variations of the key conditions and parameters such as economic environment, sustainability, scalability or product life cycle risks, were devised for the commercialisation of these personalised spectacles.

By using recent cutting-edge business modelling approaches, MADE4U was able to identify and assess possible business models to successfully bring to market highly customised glasses. The positive user feedback given during the project bodes well for the manufacturing and sale of such products to a niche market. Several patents have since been filed to support commercialisation efforts.