by Uri Marcovitz

As we head toward the holidays and close out another calendar year, it’s always good to reflect on the year’s successes and even perhaps what didn’t go so well so we can improve next year. Our reflections should always include how we treat the people with whom we work and the relationships we have built with businesses across the globe

The most valuable asset any business has is people, and the strength of relationships with fellow employees can make or break a successful year. Our business relationships extend beyond our own companies’ walls out to our customers and vendors. These relationships, like those with our own people, are valuable business assets as well.

During this “season of goodwill,” consider the fact that leveraging our relationships and working collaboratively is how our best work gets accomplished. Within the context of the organization, nobody can be successful by going it alone. Knute Rockne said “The secret of winning is working more as a team, less as individuals”.

Teamwork and collaboration define Setex Technologies business philosophy. Winning performances, whether in sports or business, depend on how well a team works together and recognizes the contributions of each player! 

As you identify the important people in your business and who your business works with; make a plan for recognizing the value of your relationship with them, not only during the holiday season but throughout the whole year. If it’s too late to plan and order holiday gifts this year, mark your 2023 calendar now to give yourself plenty of lead time to plan ahead for next December.

Put some strategy behind your gift giving and holiday party planning, and by all means, be inclusive. Be aware of people from diverse backgrounds who may celebrate different holidays or have unique celebration customs. Be warm and welcoming to those from less familiar backgrounds and cultures.

December happens to be a month that is rich in holiday traditions across just about every continent and region throughout the world. This fact makes the end of the calendar year the ideal time for celebrating diverse ideas about peace, harmony, goodwill, charity and love. 

Whatever the cultural make up of your office, whatever the cultural makeup of your clients, it is a delight when people express their own unique ideas of the holidays. Whether it’s Bodhi Day, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa or a New Year’s celebration, we can all come together during the Holiday Season to appreciate one another.

Let’s all appreciate the unique holiday greetings offered to us by our workmates and clients and give sincere and heartfelt greetings in return.

We are grateful during this Holiday Season to our employees, clients, and vendors and look forward to sharing an amazing 2023!

Artificial intelligence has made positive impacts in our lives by improving the quality of our experiences through digital assistants, predictive web searches, giving us driving directions, and more. Recent advancements show that artificial intelligence will continue to expand into business models for brands.

Tech giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple incorporate AI into various services: Amazon and Apple have created assistive technology that is responsive to human interaction with Alexa and Siri and Google and Facebook use image recognition, the ability of a computer system to identify people, places, actions, and objects. These practices have paved the way to set the standards for how artificial intelligence applications can expand business opportunities and boost customer satisfaction.

In the realm of healthcare, AI is improving diagnostic accuracy and reducing false positives. Doctors and other healthcare professionals trust AI applications to complete more serious tasks like scanning x-ray images for diseases and screening patients’ voices for early signs of Parkinson’s disease. AI has been able to advance things in medicine. In optometry, AI medical imaging is used to detect diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and more. According to the National Library of Medicine, the accuracy of detection for these diseases ranges from 75% to 91.7% because of the sensitivity of AI applications.

The eyewear industry has embraced AI for digital eyeglasses and sunglass fittings. Using facial mapping software, or facial recognition, to record a 180-degree face view and overlay 3D frames. The technology places the model of glasses on the user’s face and even allows users to adjust the positioning of the glasses. Ray-Ban, Zenni Optical, Zeelol, and other brands are using this technology to address and expand the customer service needs and experience for online stores.

Virtual try-on is a tool that many eyeglass brands are using. This feature reduces the chance of customers making returns. Ray-Ban’s Frame Advisor Technology finds the best style of glasses for customers based on their face size and shape. The technology uses face scanning technology that analyzes facial features and suggests glasses that are most suitable. The tool also allows customers to upload a photo of themselves to find the best-fitting glasses. Ray-Ban also offers a virtual try-on to see how the glasses fit.

Zenni Optical has a 3D virtual try-on tool with very simple steps. Take a 5-second, 180-degree video of your face and hold a credit card up to your forehead to ensure the size accuracy of the glasses. The tool also analyzes facial features to make recommendations for glasses that are uniquely designed for particular face shapes. In comparison, Zeelool is unique in its approach to virtual try-ons, using an AR (augmented reality) try-on tool that enables realistic frame visualization. 

AI is opening the door to a myriad of opportunities in business to offer both B2B and B2C customers an enhanced, often automated experience which leverages the power of machine learning and the advanced processing capabilities of computers to deliver personalized solutions faster, cheaper and more accurately than human intelligence can.

Eyewear manufacturers have entered 2022 with a mandate to grow sales faster than the global eyewear market. According to Grandview Research, the eyewear market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.5% from 2021 to 2028, reaching close to $280B by 2028. This means that eyewear manufacturers need to grow 10%+ organically to hit their goals. Eyewear designers and engineers are being tasked with developing new solutions that will help the company grow in this competitive market.

As we work with leading designers, we are seeing a number of best practices being deployed that are impacting their ability to deliver on these priorities. In this post, we will lay out the top 5 eyewear design trends for 2022 and dig in further in subsequent posts on how eyewear manufacturers are planning around these trends.

1. Improve existing eyewear designs: The first way to drive growth is to improve the existing eyewear products. This may require improving comfort through nose pads or other gripping technology. It may be the frames or lenses that are upgraded. Finding innovative ways to secure eyeglasses to keep them from slipping down a person’s nose. Finding ways to lock in on trends that are on the horizon can improve the perception and value of eyeglasses. With better eyewear designs, manufacturers are able to charge premium prices.
2. Increase product SKUs: Many designers are being tasked with developing more SKUs to bring to market. This may be more styles, colors, or demographics. These new eyewear designs require new materials, accessories such as nose pads, and development processes.
3. Increasing demographic targets: Kids eyewear continues to see high growth, both in volume and price point. Parents want more selections in terms of colors, frame styles, and gripping tech. Branching out into protective eyewear works for certain manufacturers looking to diversify industries and applications.
4. Sourcing materials: Given global supply chain shortages, eyewear manufacturers are limited in the plastics, metals, gripping materials, and other eyewear accessories necessary to develop new designs. More niche materials, like wood, bone, or precious stones will also be in short supply, dictating, and constraining, the materials that will be available for eyewear designers and engineers. Designers are actively seeking out eyewear materials vendors that can produce at scale.
5. Standing out in Retail environments: The point of purchase requires eyewear products to stand out and be differentiated from the other products available. Brick and mortar continue to drive close to 80% of eyewear sales, so retail positioning continues to be critical to the success of eyewear lines. The comfort and feel of the eyewear when a consumer tries it on play a large role in what the consumer selects. Having quality nose pad grips built into solutions can help set them apart.
6. Growth in influencers and social trends: Eyewear designers need to be on top of trends in fashion, comfort, and performance. Social media personalities with large followings are influencing trends like never before. The @SetexGrip Instagram account is featuring influencers that are enjoying the comfort and grip of Setex Nose Pads on their eyewear. These trendsetters should be followed to stay on top of what their audiences are engaging with and developing preferences for.

Eyewear designers have a lot to look forward to this year. The market is ripe for growth and disruption. Manufacturers will need to keep up with the competition. New eyewear technology and solutions will be designed that will revolutionize the eyewear industry. A combination of improved performance, additional comfort, and fashion will lead the way. Setex Technologies will be there for eyewear manufacturers as they seek out new gripping technology for nose pads and other eyewear applications.

A variety of industries have discovered the benefits of partnering with Setex Technologies. Years of academic research which set out to examine how a gecko can defy gravity gave birth to Setex®. It is a dry adhesive technology supplying micro-fibrillar polymer based dry adhesives and surfaces for a wide range of product applications. It supplies innovative solutions to a diversity of products that require adhesion, gripping and fastening solutions.

Studied, researched and developed at Carnegie Mellon University, Setex® is a uniquely effective adhesive technology. From this discovery, Dr. Metin Sitti, a professor of Mechanical Engineering founded and spun out Setex Technologies, formerly known as nanoGriptech from the University in 2009. Since then, the Setex Technologies team of experts has secured multiple research awards from organizations, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, and the PA NanoMaterials Commercialization Center.

Commercially innovative, practical, adaptable, and customizable, industries are benefiting from partnering with Setex Technologies. Industries currently using Setex® as a solution in adhesion, gripping and fastening include, medical, sports, aerospace, wearables, semiconductors, automotive and more.

Setex® Delivers a Permanent Solution For Temporary Bonding

Setex Tape is the first commercially available dry adhesive technology that supplies both a permanent and temporary bonding solution. It is a dry, residue-free adhesive that can be used repeatedly. Setex Technologies will collaborate with any partner in customizing an exclusive solution for their needs.

The Setex Team is ready to work with partners who require gravity defying slippage, adhesion, gripping power and reusability.

The Partner Process at Setex Technologies

Partnering with Setex Technologies begins with defining the product, uses, expectations, design, target cost, specs, manufacturing, and subassemblies needed. Once the parameters and uses of the customized partner project are completed, the design process begins.

Upon completion of the design process the prototype manufacturing begins. Setex is determined to supply the adhesion, gripping, or fastening solution that best benefits the partner’s use. Prototyping customized products for partners include, testing manufacturing solutions, along with verifying that the product exceeds expectations and is a workable solution for the needs of the partner.

The final phase is launching the product with the partner. This includes manufacturing, assembly, and training. The Setex Team follows through with end users to ensure superior quality that performs its designed functionality.

Setex Makes Products Better

Setex is involved with partners in a diversity of industries. Setex doesn’t make products, it makes them perform better. Setex benefits partners by defying gravity, preventing slippage, supplying reusable adhesion, and preparing for the future

Setex doesn’t make prosthetics, it improves how they help the person. Setex doesn’t make the earbuds, it keeps them in place. Setex doesn’t make the game, it keeps the controller in your hand.

Setex is ready to work with manufacturers and developers of products that need to defy gravity, today and tomorrow, on earth and in space.

The science behind Setex Technologies was inspired by a question proposed by one of the many wonders of nature. “How do geckos defy gravity?” The academic research and scientific experiments that set out to answer this question gave birth to Setex Technologies.

This approach of asking how and why actions in nature are possible has led to innovations that solved complex human inquiries for centuries. Leonardo da Vinci, a painter, sculptor, inventor, scientist, theatrical set director, puzzle-maker, and more often began with a simple question. His well-documented journals are filled with such inquiries as, how do birds fly, how do fish swim, how is light diffracted over distance. Over his life, he had thousands of questions on how nature worked.

Throughout his prolific and illustrious career, da Vinci spent countless hours in observance of nature. He used these observations to sharpen his skills as a painter and more. He studied the interplay of shadows and light which led to his ability to transform his artwork beyond a one-dimensional image. To achieve realistic sculptures, he observed how muscles relied on each other for movement. He used the power of observation, research, and experimentation to emulate nature.

Biometrics or Biomimicry

The process of studying how nature works and applying the answers to solving human problems is known as biometrics or biomimicry. The words are compound words taken from ancient Greek. bios translated as life and mimesis as an imitation. Simply put the words biometrics or biomimicry mean the process of imitating life.

Setex Technologies is the end result of applying biometrics to develop innovative products based on the ability of the gecko to defy gravity. The original research centered on answering that question, then developing a process that would emulate the gravity-defying ability of the gecko. This led to the breakthrough of the gecko-inspired grip and adhesion products developed by the scientists at Setex Technologies.

The Gecko Grip

The gecko does not use webs, claws, or glue to defy gravity. It has developed the powers to walk upside down, and vertically through evolution. The development of this skill was in response to its need to escape predators which it must be able to do at birth. This evolutionary ability is a complex system that encompasses, geometry, biology, physics, and chemistry working in unison.

The gecko uses the principle that negative and positive charges attract. To take advantage of this rule of physics, it relies on a complex interplay of the geometry of its feet, its toe pads, and intermolecular forces.

The toepads of the gecko have thin hairs called setae made of keratin, a structural protein, they end in smaller structures known as spatulae. The shape of the gecko toe pad combined with a positive and negative interplay between the setae, spatulae and the surface is in short how evolution has allowed the gecko to defy gravity.

University Research to Commercial Application

After answering the question, how do geckos defy gravity, the next step was how it could be imitated for solutions that help human problems. Setex Technologies was incubated from research, experimentation, and development at Carnegie Mellon University.

The result of the original inquiry and years of research and experimentation was a technology to supply micro-fibrillar polymer-based dry adhesives and surfaces for a wide range of product applications. Patented gecko-inspired Setex materials delivering products and solutions that stick, grip, and fasten with unmatched flexibility and under the most challenging circumstances emerged from academic research to commercial production.

Setex Technologies is applying the science of how geckos defy gravity to solve gripping and sticking solutions to an array of diverse industries. Setex Technologies is already supplying innovative solutions to hundreds of products and industries with many more on the horizo

In taking a dive into the wearable industry it’s obvious that everything old is new again. Wearables per se are not new. People have been wearing, eyeglasses, hearing aids, watches, and jewelry for centuries. Over time some wearables have faded out of fashion only to be re-invented and born again as a popular faddish accessory.

Although eyeglasses are a necessity for some people who wear them, when they were not fashionable, they were replaced by contact lenses. As the wheel of fashion spins, eyeglasses have not only had a resurgence for those who need them, they are worn as a fashion accessory by others.

Watches once found on most adult wrists by the 1990s were replaced by the phone which was carried all day. The spinning wheel of fashion landed on watch, and it again became a fashion statement.

Joining these two wearables that have spun around through the decades from in favor and out of fashion, there are other wearables such as hearing aids that are essential. Although their footprint became smaller and they were less noticeable, securing them in place was always a problem.

Old, New, and Wearables of the Future

Along with wristwatches and eyewear making a full-out fashion comeback in recent years, high-tech wearables are also commanding attention. Wearables that track workout times, heart rates, mileage, calories, and more are now prominent on the forearms of runners, bikers, and walkers.

Cell-based communication devices are competing with wristwatches for that body spot, while earbuds that serve dual purposes are pushing out traditional hearing aids. Others wear microphones attached to collars, chest pockets, and other parts of the body for hands-free communications over cellular devices.

The announcement that the age of the metaverse is upon us means that even more wearables will dominate everyday life. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) devices will explode as more people align their everyday lives with the metaverse.

Already on the drawing boards and set to join a lengthy list of future wearables are microchipped jewelry that can keep track of biometrics, control business and personal Internet of Things (IoT) devices, and also produce a hologram for your metaverse avatar.

Securing Wearables Today and Tomorrow

The wave of wearables from clothing embedded with tech to prototype devices that access AI, VR, and the IoT are in the near future. Beyond that one only needs to look at Sci-Fi shows and movies to guess at what the future of wearables will look like in the next few decades.

Securing wearables today and tomorrow requires a gravity-defying solution. In securing wearables the solution requires comfort. It must be able to firmly hold wearables in place while walking, jogging, running, biking, even during water sports. It must be removable and reusable. It can’t leave behind a film or sticky residue. Luckily, it is already here to secure wearables today and into the future.

Studying the past opens the doors to the future. Setex Technologies was born from studying nature. By learning how a gecko defies gravity Setex learned how to make advanced innovative products that grip, stick, and fasten. The result is an advanced micro-fibrillar polymer-based dry adhesive technology. For the wearable industry today, tomorrow, and into the coming AI, VR, and Space Age, Setex Elastomeric polymers have been converted into Setex Grip structures which demonstrate a remarkable power to adhere, grip, and fasten even on wet, sweaty, and oily skin. Setex is ready to secure wearables today, tomorrow, and beyond.