Led by a consortium of ten international experts, POPULAR aims to shape the landscape of augmented reality eyewear while PREMYOM will bring together prominent stakeholders in research on vision and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in France to initiate joint innovation on myopia management.

Combining decades of superior craftsmanship, an innovative spirit, and a commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology, EssilorLuxottica continues to drive momentum for the future with new categories and a brand new generation of products destined to expand the boundaries of the industry. Aligned with its Mission to help people ‘see more and be more’, POPULAR and PREMYOM are testament to the Group’s commitment to go beyond the fields of eyecare and eyewear while broadening the perspectives of technological advancements.

Making eyewear a gateway into a world of new opportunities

Building on its long-standing journey to make eyewear a gateway into new worlds, the Group recently launched POPULAR*, a project which aims to create an augmented reality (AR) eyewear platform covering a wide range of users and use-cases. Key project milestones include: the development of ultra-low power micro-displays, innovative holographic mirror technology, and application software for AR eyewear prototypes.

Supported by the European Commission as part of its Horizon Europe program for research and innovation, POPULAR brings together a consortium of ten partners for over three years. Along with EssilorLuxottica taking the lead as project coordinator, it gathers international academic institutions, industrial companies and use-case partners including Microoled, Instituto de Biomecánica de Valencia, Fraunhofer, Tech2Heal, Fédération Française d'Aviron, Orbel, as well as, Universities of Haute-Alsace, Lotz and Alicante.

Since last year, EssilorLuxottica has also been involved in another project, AR Alliance, which provides a supportive and neutral environment for companies and organizations of all sizes to take an active role in advancing and strengthening the augmented reality hardware development ecosystem.

To learn more about the Alliance, visit thearalliance.org.

Expanding vision care into med-tech

Launching in June, the PREMYOM** project stands for medical optics-based solutions to slow down the myopia epidemic. Supported by SGPI (Secrétariat Général Pour l’Investissement) and Bpifrance as part of the France 2030 plan and i-Demo-2 State funding, it brings together the following players over the next five years: EssilorLuxottica, Rothschild Foundation Hospital, Paris Vision Institute, French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA), the InSimo startup as well as Institut Mines-Télécom (IMT) a research and educational public group.

Building on the Group’s leadership in myopia management, the PREMYOM project focuses on innovation for a personalized approach to myopia control with the goal of developing new personalized ophthalmic solutions for myopia management. It will leverage not only clinical trials, in-depth research on the physiology of vision and myopia progression predictive models but also connected eyewear, digital twin technologies and optometry instruments. All these aspects stand to benefit from an AI supported approach. Ultimately, a personalized e-health journey for a tailored support of the patients will be provided by real-life and clinical data from French patients.

To find out more about POPULAR, visit the project’s website.

* Prescription Optics Providing a Universal Lens for Augmented Reality eyewear

** Prise en charge et Ralentissement de l'Epidémie de Myopie par l'Optique Médicale