Glare And Digital Screens Prompt Shamir Driver Intelligence Lenses

Lens-making specialist Shamir Optical claims its new Driver Intelligence Rx lenses slash driver reaction times, boost peripheral vision and make it faster and safer to read digital screens at speed.

The Israeli company’s new Driver Intelligence lenses are also claimed to help counter the night-time myopia and glare that keeps a surveyed 48% of modern drivers off the roads at night.

To combat this, Shamir developed its Driver Intelligence system with two different lens sets for the day and for night and low-light conditions, to be fitted into the frames of the driver’s choosing.

Conceived as a lens for performance drivers, the Driver Intelligence lenses is claimed to shrink driver processing times by 16%, allowing them to move their eyes more quickly to the next piece of critical information on the road.

The new lenses have been developed with the help of artificial intelligence to sift through more than 14 million data points of research from road and racing drivers.

A survey this year found more than 70% of US drivers admitted night-driving glare was an issue in all weather conditoins, and 71% said they had trouble identifying even road signs in poor weather at night.

“It’s clear that digital screens in cars have lead to an entirely new problem that reduces the visual performance of drivers, particularly at night, and significantly reduces their safety,” Shamir Optical CEO Yagen Moshe said.

“Glare from the sun during the day and from headlights and road and traffic lights at night have always been an issue, but now they are confronted with a growing problem from inside their cars.

“Dash glare is a new type of glare and increasingly, it’s something that can’t be avoided by drivers, with 43% of people saying they had no choice but to engage with digital screens.”

A study from Shamir, which is part of the EssilorLuxottica Group, showed worrying increases in glare and reflections, which unnaturally alter the pupil dilation for drivers and reduce their visual performance, and 40% of drivers admitted they struggled to read the screens properly.

The study indicated 62% of drivers found their eyes becoming strained and tired at night after less than an hour, and 43% of drivers admitting their eyes became tired from glare after less than two hours during the day.

“Visual acuity is lower at night, so drivers detect fewer details and that increases reaction time. Reaction time is always larger at night,” Moshe said.

“We validated these results – from real-time focus and reaction times – with reverse testing as well as testing.”

Shamir Chief Technology Officer Zohar Katzman insisted the lenses enhance the light wavelengths that boost visual acuity, making it easier for drivers to pinpoint apexes, braking points and road hazards, while filtering out glare in both its day and night iterations.

“The retina’s cone photo receptors operate during daylight, while its rod photo receptors take over at night,” Katzman said.

“While driving, though, the human eye uses a combination of both, known as mesopic vision, so Driver Intelligence uses different systems for day and night because that’s what your eyes do, too.”

“There is also the problem of night myopia, where light focuses in front of the retina, instead of on it, and it’s a larger problem than many people think, and worse in younger drivers than older drivers.

“If you have 20 friends, you will hear someone say they don’t need glasses but they don’t see well at night. This is usually night myopia, because your pupil dilates more, and to dilate more it changes the muscles and that’s how it is created, but we address this, too, with Driver intelligence.”