French-Italian eyewear company EssilorLuxottica and Politecnico di Milano – one of the largest technical universities in Italy – have signed an agreement to establish what is claimed to be the first-ever joint smart eyewear lab.
The lab will reportedly oversee research into the next generation of smart glasses, which could combine digital technologies with bioengineering, physics of matter and AI.
The companies claim to be providing an initial investment of more than €50m (£42.6m) and hope to employ at least 100 research staff at the facility.
The project is intended to cover research and testing for eyewear capable of autonomous network connection.
The lab will operate for an initial five-year stretch within the Politecnico di Milano’s innovation district in Milan.
The goal behind the area is to bridge commercial and academic interests by developing an international research environment.
A key technical challenge will be the development of core hardware, software and application solutions to foster human-digital interaction.
To support this, the project has been divided into macro-objectives. These include the analysis and development of electronic and photonic components, algorithms to acquire, analyse and provide real-world information to the wearer using augmented reality.
“Innovation is at the heart of EssilorLuxottica’s business model,” said Francesco Milleri, chairman and CEO of EssilorLuxottica.
“The lines between physical and virtual worlds are becoming increasingly blurred, outlining completely unprecedented horizons and offering a unique challenge that will propel us into the future.
“These new models are keys for unlocking an enormous potential of development for the job market and the entire economic system.”
The pair hope to integrate the technology into various prototype glasses to test their ability in real-word environments.
The lab will function as part of EssilorLuxottica’s R&D offering, which already encompasses more than 30 R&D hubs, about 1,000 researchers and more than 11,000 patents.
Both organisations also hope to produce a curriculum focused on specific expertise associated with the field to help attract talent to the lab.
