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September 18, 2020 08:30 AM

Kickstart: Ray-Bans are already iconic. Do they also have to be 'smart'?

Rhoda Miel
Managing Editor
Plastics News Staff
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    Ray-Bans are already iconic. Do they also have to be 'smart'?

    They're still trying to make "smart" glasses a thing, and this time they've got the maker of Ray-Ban sunglasses on the project.

    EssilorLuxottica, the French company that makes the classic acrylic and polycarbonate glasses, and Facebook (of course Facebook would be involved in this) announced Sept. 16 that they were partners in "Project Aria," which aims to bring smart glasses to the market branded as Ray-Bans.

    "By wearing these devices as they go about their day, at home, on Facebook campuses (once they reopen) and in public," Facebook said in its announcement, "the data they gather will support the development of head-tracking, eye-tracking, and audio algorithms that will one day make the dream of AR glasses real."

    As our sister paper Advertising Age writes: "The tech community has been trying to crack the glasses form-factor for years. Google was a pioneer with Google Glass in 2013. Google Glass were internet-connected specs that could record videos and photos and run apps like maps to give directions. The world was not ready for them though, and there were serious privacy concerns raised by the prospect of people walking around with surreptitious recording devices."

    For its part, Luxottica sees the collaboration as a way that an "iconic brand like Ray-Ban" can find its space in a digital future.

    Let's face it: Ray-Ban glasses, especially as seen in movies like Risky Business or The Blues Brothers, truly are some of the most iconic "wearables" ever, and one of the coolest pieces of plastic on the planet. But for me, as much as I like Ray-Ban, it's not a question of style. It's still about privacy.

     

    Alpla
    Packaging maker Alpla plans an HDPE recycling plant in Mexico, shown in this rendering.
    Building on demand for recycled HDPE

    Here's a take on the old "what came first, the chicken or the egg" question. Does demand for recycled plastic happen if there is no source for recycled plastic?

    Packaging company Alpla is putting $17.7 million into a recycling plant in Mexico for high density polyethylene that can meet its own needs in the area while also creating interest in using post-consumer HDPE by other companies.

    "We invest in regions where the demand for recycled material is not yet that high," Georg Lässer, head of recycling for Alpla, said in this story from Steve Toloken on the company's new project. "In doing this, we give used plastics value."

     

    Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
    Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is investing $140 million to expand its existing laboratory plastics production to support global demand for COVID-19 testing.
    Building up plastics lab production for COVID testing

    In August, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. announced a $40 million expansion in Lenexa, Kan., to assemble viral transport media for COVID-19 testing. That work would involve plastics molded by outside suppliers.

    Now the company says it has started a $140 million expansion of existing laboratory plastics production to support COVID testing and the development of therapies and vaccines.

    The investment includes "a significant number" of machines and tools for molding, assembly, printing and packaging, officials told PN's Sarah Kominek.

    Work on the expansions actually began in April. Click through the link above for more.

     

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