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The article discusses efforts to rejuvenate Rochester, New York's optics industry as of May 2014. It recalls that eyewear company Bausch & Lomb has exited most lens businesses in the 1980s, Xerox its copiers in the 1970s while Kodak has downsized from 60,000 employees in 1980 to 5,000. It talks about the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster and optics programs to develop the next generation's talents through the Monroe Community College (MCC) and Rochester's East High School laboratories.

Scientists and engineers at Royal Philips Electronics NV of the Netherlands are developing a fluid lens that loosely duplicates the way in which they see with their own eyes. Called the FluidFocus lens, it focuses by adjusting the shape of the lens itself. According to the company, the lens may eventually fill applications in digital photography, endoscopy, home security, and optical storage. The lens, filled with one part insulating oil and one part conductive aqueous solution, forms a hemispheric bubble in the unenergized state as the hydrophobic sides repel the water and oil fills the void.