Optics: eye examining – vision testing and correcting – Spectacles and eyeglasses – Ophthalmic lenses or blanks
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-25
2002-10-15
Schwartz, Jordan M. (Department: 2873)
Optics: eye examining, vision testing and correcting
Spectacles and eyeglasses
Ophthalmic lenses or blanks
Reexamination Certificate
active
06464355
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a novel prescription lens, mainly suited for ophthalmic applications, which can be formed to almost any shape and any thickness the designer wishes to, and a method which the design is synthesized from its specification.
2. Terms Definition
The term “eyewear” as used herein is defined as any light-transmitting element or elements in front of the eyes.
The term “prescription” as used herein is defined as a specific combination of optical parameters that meets the needs of a particular person in purpose to solve a large variety of treatments and diagnostic problems known to eye specialists, or the required optical function/properties whenever the article is not an ophthalmic lens. The term “diffractive surface” as used herein is defined as an optical surface having all over the surface plurality of edges or apertures or protrusions that are designed and made in accordance with the Interference phenomena. Only whenever the exact spatial locations (in resolution of few wavelengths) of said edges or apertures or protrusions have an indispensable influence on the image quality, the surface is defined as a diffractive surface.
The term “discontinuous surface” as used herein is defined as a surface having plurality of points and/or curves wherein the first derivative is not continuous.
The term “saw-toothed surface” as used herein is defined as a surface having plurality of discontinuities. That surface may looks like a saw-toothed surface and/or having a steps function nature and/or having plurality of grooves or protrusions or saw-teeth and/or may be defined as a surface that contains plurality of points wherein the surface not being continuously differentiable, and herein all these terms are equivalent.
The term “Thieberger-design-lens” as used herein is defined as the novel thin lens of this invention, in purpose to distinguish it from the previous art lenses.
3. Description of the Prior Art
When a well eyesight person wants to use any eyewear, he is limited only by the industry wide availability of eyewear shapes and materials. When a person suffers from visual impairment wants to use any eyewear, not only he is limited by the industry wide availability of eyewear shapes and materials but he is limited also by the industry availability of prescription eyewear, which has limited shapes and materials available.
Until now, a method, having very good results, that converts any unprescription eyewear to a prescription one was not available. As a result, people suffer from visual impairment had to use prescription glasses or a combination of thick prescription lenses and a big eyewear instead of using any eyewear they want. The wish has been expressed to have a very thin and lightweight lens, with very good optical quality, that by adhering to the inside or outside surface of the eyewear, will convert an unprescription eyewear to a prescription one.
Unprescription eyewear designers are free to design their eyewear to any shape and thickness they want, therefore, we have plenty of fashion and/or user-friendly eyewears, such as, but not limited to, sunglasses, goggles, sport glasses, swimming glasses, diving masks, shooting glasses, helmets, gas masks, etc. On the contrary, prescription eyewear designers are seriously limited by the shape and thickness of prescription lenses, therefore, their creativity is restricted and not exploited appropriately.
Until now, a method, having very good results, that enable to form a prescription lens in any shape and almost any thickness the designer wants was not available. As a result, people who suffer from visual impairment have a small amount of shapes to choose from.
The wish has been expressed to have a prescription lens which is very thin, lightweight, not fragile, can have any desired shape, and have very good optical quality. The previous art prescription lenses are rigid and thick. Shaping and cutting those lenses require expensive tools which are not accessible to most of the people. As a result, most of the people don't have unique eyewears. People cannot cut their lenses to the shape they want, fashioners cannot cut the lenses to shapes that will fit to the dress, the haircut, the car. they designed, etceteras, herein after refer to “recreational stuff”.
The industry does not consider it practical to prefabricate a stock of lenses having every possible power of each parameter in every possible combination that may be needed. Consequently, a sizable proportion of eyeglass lenses are custom made at the facilities of dispensing opticians or optical laboratories.
Lenses have traditionally been formed as a single integral body of glass or plastic. Grinding or molding such lenses to meet the specifications of a particular prescription requires costly equipment, highly skilled technicians and is time consuming. In addition, the lens is thick and available in very small amount of shapes. It has been found that the fabrication of prescription lenses can be economically accomplished in a more rapid manner with a laminated lens construction in which two or more lens layers/wafers are bonded together with a transparent adhesive.
The laminate construction enables assembly of lenses having any of a large number of different combinations of optical parameters from a relatively small stock of prefabricated lens layers of different configurations. Combinations of the layers can, for instance, provide lenses having any of a large number of different powers as the power of the lens is the summation of the powers of the layers. Cylinder correction for astigmatism can be adjusted by an appropriate rotation of one layer relative to the other prior to bonding of the layers. Bifocal or multifocal layers can be used when called for by the prescription and interlayer of light absorptive, light reflective or polarizing material can easily be provided between the layers.
The fabrication of laminated lenses is subject to certain problems which have not heretofore been adequately addressed and resolved. The final laminated lens is thick. The layers are available in a very limited amount of shapes and are not designed to bond to an eyewear that has surface that is not spherical or toric. In addition, The laminated lenses are usually frailer than regular lenses and elastic laminated lenses are not available.
In 1748, Count Buffon proposed to grind out of a solid piece of glass a lens in steps or concentric zones, in order to reduce the thickness of the lens to a minimum. In 1822, Augustin Fresnel, for whom the Fresnel lens is named, constructed a lens in which the centers of curvature of the different rings receded from the axis according to their distances from the center.
Modem Fresnel lenses consist of a series of concentric prismatic grooves, designed to cooperatively direct incident light rays to a common focus or focuses. This type of lens is thin, lightweight, can be made elastic, shook resistance, almost unbreakable, and can be accurately and cheaply mass-produced using replication techniques. The problem with Modem Fresnel lenses is that they are limited to flat or rotationally symmetric surfaces. As a result, when a designer design an eyewear which contains Fresnel lens, one of his considerations must be the lens shape.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,698,854 and 3,904,281, each issued to Jampolsky, disclose a thin, fully conformable, planarly smooth, plastic membrane which applied and made to adhere with finger pressure to a conventional spectacle lens. The step quickly changes one or more optical characteristics of the spectacle lens or provides a change in the light transmission across the field of view. Those patents force a planarly smooth thin Fresnel lens to adhere to any light transmitting element, although the Fresnel lens and the light transmitting element have initially non-matching surfaces. As a result, there were optical imperfections and distortions and aberrations visible to the wearer. The planarly smooth Fresnel lens does not readily adhere to curved surfaces on a permanent
Gil Thieberger
Schwartz Jordan M.
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