KTVN Channel 2 - Reno Tahoe News Weather, Video - Smart Glasses

Until now there were bifocals with the line in the middle or the newer progressive lenses allowing you to see far away in the center then gradually fading to your reading glasses' prescription to see up close when you looked down.

But those meant you lost some of your peripheral vision - it became blurry. "You have to turn your head, point your nose to see whatever you're looking at," says PixelOptics Manager Maureen Maglione.

Baton Rouge Ideal Vision Care representative Tony Banh adds, "there's a sweet spot and you always have to look through that sweet spot to see."

But now enter 21st century technology and the empower.

Think of the technology in your smartphone then think of the new bifocal type glasses as smart glasses. They plug in overnight to recharge the battery. They have a light to show they are on or off and just like you swipe your smartphone to say, answer a call, you also swipe the empower glasses to turn them on or charge the mode.

If you hold the glasses just right you can see the embedded liquid crystal. Normally it's nearly invisible. That lets you see up close when you need to. You can also swipe the temple and activate the automatic mode. That turns on the lens when you look down and off the moment you look up freeing up the entire lens for distance viewing. No distortion in your peripheral vision. Just by tilting your head you electronically go from distance to reading faster than the blink of an eye. "The electronicl, the automatic feature there and then the touch feature it's just amazing, that's amazing and I think patients are going to really be wowed by that and aceept that and embrace that technology," says Dr. Robert Janot.

Smart lens technology is the biggest advance in glasses since the bifocals. "The wonderful thing about empower is that the lens itself gives the wearer all distances from far distance to arms length - which is the world we live in."

The glasses are made by a company called PixelOptics, and like all brand new high tech gadgets, the price is high - $1,300. And if your eyes need a new prescription, you'll need new glasses.