Have you heard? There’s a new progressive on the block and it’s revolutionizing things in a way the block hasn’t seen since the Wahlberg brothers. The Varilux XR lens has just dropped and to celebrate, we’re introducing a few new things to The Optical Shoppe. 

When you choose between progressive lens designs, usually you are just picking between a selection of standardized designs. Some have clearer peripheral vision than others, but that’s about as customizable as it gets which means you and your neighbour might be wearing the exact same design, even though you may have completely different vision strategies.  

While this works for most, we optical professionals found ourselves asking the question: “if we don’t all see the same way, why do we all use the same progressive designs?” Luckily for us, the Varilux XR answered that question. 

For every progressive pair of glasses, we always measure where your pupil looks through the lens. For the Varilux XR, we also measure: 

  • Pantoscopic Tilt: How tilted your lenses are in front of your eye when you wear your glasses 
  • Face Form: How much wrap around your face the frame has 
  • Vertex Distance: The distance between your eye and your lens 
  • Near Vision Behaviour: How you naturally act when you are reading something up close 

All of these measurements help to sharpen your vision, but the introduction of the Near Vision Behaviour tracking is where the game really changes. Now at The Optical Shoppe, we can track your near vision tendencies with a brand new measurement tool called the Eye Ruler.  

The Eye Ruler has built in software designed specifically to monitor how you move your head and hold a device when you are reading with it. Then it compares your Near Vision Behaviour profile to an AI-powered database in order to determine the specific design that works best for your eyes in your frames. No two frames should be the same, and neither should your lenses! 

Just like the weather in Saskatchewan, the optical industry is constantly changing and as opticians, it is important to us that we stay on top of new techniques and technologies in order to bring you the best vision possible. So if you’re reading this with a blurry halo around the text, pop on by and see what the Eye Ruler is all about. After your XR lenses come in, you’ll agree that we’ve got a great king, but sometimes you need a Ruler.