As mentioned in an earlier post, Kodak have introduced a new progressive lens with “Anti Fatigue Technology”. Claudia and I were invited to attend a seminar where the philosophy and manufacturing process of this new approach to “anti-fatigue” progressive lens design was explained. For us as practicioners it is very important that we stay on top of technological developments not only on frame design, but in also on lens design. This is particularly true for progressive addition lenses (PAL) because the manufacturing technology for these kind of lenses seems to be developing incredibly fast.

Why is it so important for an eyecare professional to stay on top of the new technologies employed these days? Simply because there are so many different manufacturers offering so many different designs, materials and surface qualities etc. resulting in incredibly large lists of possibilities for the prescriber and wearer alike. Whenever a new design is introduced to the market, the manufactuerer does so convinced that their product is the best and the right solution for all. Our experience has taught us that this may not necessarily be so. In many cases, new designs usually carry the highest price tag as well. This makes it even more difficult, because the higher price tag doesn’t neccessarily mean that you get a better or more suitable lens. Unfortunately, selecting the best performing progressive lens is not a matter of going through the price list and making a selection based on price.

This is why Claudia and I, whenever possible, make a point of trying and evaluating new developments ourselves, before we decide to offer them as a solution for our clients. This way we do not just rely on the sales material provided by the manufacturer, which, as we all know, is designed to sell. In the case of the new Kodak Unique Anti-Fatigue lenses, this is what the literature promises:

KODAK Unique™ Lenses are digitally-created backside progressives designed with Vision First Technology™.

Vision First Design™ provides:
• A broad field of view in a clear distance area
• Smooth graduation of power across the surface of the lens to ease patient adaptation
• Gentle binocular balance for quick, clear object recognition
• Visual quality often compared to a single vision lens

Anti-Fatigue Technology provides:
• assistance to the normal binocular function of a patient’s eyes for intermediate and close distant viewing resulting in a more relaxed reading experience

Sounds great? It sure does. I will not try and explain how exactly those two technologies aim to provide the wearer with a positive and comfortable viewing experience, but I should probably say that the  Vision First Design is Kodak’s name for their latest digital freeform lens technology and the Anti-Fatigue Technology  refers to their idea of adding prism to the reading area of the lens to assist in the binocular function of the eyes in close distances. The exact amount of prism built into the reading areas is calculated digitally and depends on the actual prescription of the lenses.

Back to my personal experiences. The Unique lens comes in something like 23 different materials. Each material has different properties and the selection of the required material depends on many aspects that include the wearers prescription, the lifestyle, aesthetic requirements, safety requirements, tinting requirements etc. etc..

In view of my moderate myopia (I am short-sighted), I had ordered my prescription in a clear plastic material with a high index of 1.67 and an anti-reflection coating (CleAR Coat). The lenses arrived back after 9 days, not bad considering that they were manufactured in the USA. They were accompanied by an authentity card which had my personal prescription details recorded as well as the lens type and material. These cards are also helpful if you loose your glasses while traveling and require a duplicate pair to be made by another optician. Although the card notes that my lenses had the “Anti-Fatigue Technology” added, the amount of digitally calculated and worked-in prism was not part of the details recorded.

The first impression was that the lenses looked nice and attractive with an edge thickness of only 3.8mm, fitted into a deSign Markus-T frame and weighing in at 12 grams complete. The visual quality for distance vision is good in the central part of the lens. I experienced no “swimming effect” which can be contributed to the advanced freeform technology. In many older designs of progressive lenses this “swimming effect” is very very obvious and accounts for many people not being able to get used to their progressives. However, even though the new Kodak Unique lens design is one of the most advanced on the market, I did experienced some amount of blurr in the perifery of the distance part (both, nasal and temporal), reducing the usable part to what felt like an unacceptably narrow area.

The same applies to both, the intermediate and near portions of the lenses, with no “swimming effect”, but horizontally rather limited usable areas. Did the new “Anti-Fatigue Technology” make a difference and provide me with more relaxed reading vision? I think it did, but only if I was reading a rather narrow paperback. For me, reading a newspaper or magazine was not as comfortable as with other freeform lens designs I have worn, simply because I was aware of what I felt was a rather limited peripheral performance of the Kodak Unique lenses.

Conclusively I would say that there is still room for improvement for the Vision First Design Technology to produce a lens with horizontally larger distance, intermediate and near areas. The idea of the “Anti-Fatigue Technology” is a good idea for some wearers. I just wish that the prescriber had some influence on the amount of prism built into the near portion of the lens so a true customisation can be achieved for those with convergence insufficiencies. The technology seems to be there.