If you've ever driven into blinding sunlight--heading west
on the Pennsylvania Turnpike at sunset comes to mind--you will appreciate the
invention of Mt. Lebanon resident scientist and entrepreneur Chris Mullin.
Mullin is developing sunglasses that use an electronic
shield to instantly block the sun's blinding glare. The technology is based on
the strategic placement of liquid crystals in the lens. No more squinting or
tensing up from dangerous situations on the road.
Mullin's company Dynamic Eye received celebrity attention
last year after he moved into a small research office on the second level of
the Mt. Lebanon Shops on Mt. Lebanon Boulevard. Hoping to find venture partners
for the product, he released a press release about the sunglasses.
The next thing he knew CNN was on the phone. Then PopularScience named Dynamic Eye one of the top inventions of 2011.
"When I introduced myself to my mailman, he said, 'yes,
I know who you are,'" Mullin laughs.
Mullin received his PhD in physics from the University of
California at Berkeley where he specialized in lasers, optics, and liquid
crystals. He met his wife while there and followed her to Pittsburgh with
plans to either become an industrial physicist or start a company here. (She is
an immunologist and researcher at the University of Pittsburgh.)
Dynamic Eye's first product will be non-prescription
sunglasses with a minimum of features to keep the price point reasonable, about
$400 to $500 a pair, he says. A research grant from the U.S. Air Force is helping
to sustain the research, but Mullin hopes to find venture and manufacturing
partners to take the prototypes to the next level. He's also like to develop
glasses to for medical conditions and job-related uses.
A final product is 18 months to two years away, he says.
"No one in the world knows how to make the kind of
liquid crystal lens that we have," says the entrepreneur who has been working on the glasses for eight years. " I'll be pleased when it turns into
money."
Writer: Deb Smit
Source: Chris Mullin, Dynamic Eye