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Tony Van Heugten, CTO of e-Vision Smart Optics, Inc., inducted in the 2024 Florida Inventors Hall of Fame

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Mr. Van Heugten , CTO of e-Vision Smart Optics, Inc., joins the exclusive list of 77 inductees to the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame with colleagues collectively holding over 5,200 patents. He earned his recognition as an inventor who holds over 61 U.S. Patents to his name. As CTO for e-Vision Smart Optics, his talents have added to the company’s list of over 345 e-Vision Smart Optics patents.

TAMPA, Fla., Dec. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Anthony “Tony” Van Heugten, the Chief Technology Officer of e-Vision Smart Optics, Inc., became a 2024 Inductee in the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame.

“We are extremely proud of Mr. Van Heugten’s deserved induction into Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, an organization that recognizes Florida inventors whose achievements have significantly advanced the quality of life for all Americans,” Joel Zychick, CEO, of eVision Smart Optics, Inc.

Mr. Van Heugten is now on the exclusive list of 77 inductees to the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame with colleagues collectively holding over 5,200 patents. He earned his recognition as an inventor who holds over 61 U.S. Patents to his name. As CTO for e-Vision Smart Optics, his talents have added to the company’s list of over 345 e-Vision Smart Optics patents.

He joins an impressive list of globally recognized inventors

Mr. Van Heugten was inducted in the Annual Florida Inventors Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Friday, October 25, 2024 in Tampa, Florida.

The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame includes globally recognized names like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone and many other inventors that have made positive impacts in our lives.

About Tony Van Heugten

Tony Van Heugten is the Chief Technology Officer of e-Vision and a principle inventor of its liquid crystal tunable lens technology. Prior to joining e-Vision in 2007, Mr. Van Heugten, co-founded WaveTec Vision Systems, Inc. (“WaveTec”) in 2000 serving as Chief Technology Officer, co-inventing the intra-operative wave front sensor that improves visual outcomes in eye surgery. In 2014, WaveTec was sold to Alcon*. Mr. Van Heugten has worked with many leaders in the ophthalmic community developing numerous successful products such as an instrument that creates stitch-less incisions for cataract surgery in one pass and an instrument to remove an implanted IOL through a 3mm incision.

Mr. Van Heugten has also managed other numerous successful technical projects both inside and outside of ophthalmology including the development of new products in interventional cardiology (MedClose), vascular access (Johnson & Johnson) and laser-vision-correction lasers (Summit Technology). He was a co-developer of

e-Vision’s electro-optic phoropter for performing vision examinations.

e-Vision Smart Optics – Company Overview

eVision is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida and a pioneer in electronic lens modulation with more than 18 years of experience designing and fabricating optics that control and shape light with no moving parts. “We are extremely proud of Mr. Van Heugten’s deserved induction into Florida Inventors Hall of Fame, an organization that recognizes Florida inventors whose achievements have significantly advanced the quality of life for all Americans.” Joel Zychick, CEO, of eVision Smart Optics, Inc. With ownership or control of over 440 issued or pending worldwide patents, e-Vision has significant protection for its intellectual property. This extensive patent portfolio is classified as follows:

e-Vision Intellectual Property

Optical Designs for Electronic Lenses: e-Vision’s patents cover its designs for electronic lenses and optics, including diffractive and pixelated diffractive optics, refractive optics, combination diffractive/refractive optics and adjustable fluidic optics.Electronics: Patents cover activating (focusing), powering and charging electronic optics remotely, wirelessly and/or anatomically with the electronics either imbedded in the optics or located outside the optics. Other patents cover memory and data transmission.Specific Applications for Electronic Lenses: The patent portfolio covers the application of Smart Focus Optics for eyecare (contact lenses, IOLs and spectacles), mobile media (optics for cameras, web cams, the “Internet of Things”), ophthalmic diagnostic devices (the electronic phoropter, for example) and more.Flexible Optics: e-Vision’s patents also cover the use of flexible (foldable) electronic lenses, optics and electronics for its eyecare applications.Support: e-Vision also has numerous additional patents on the processes and methods required to fabricate electronic lenses and optics.Wearables: The Internet of Things: Patents covering electronic wearable frames that encapsulate mobile media components including audio, video, microphones and wireless communication and the electronics (power and control) to drive such components.

e-Vision Smart Optics, Inc. is a privately held Delaware-based Corporation with its development facility and administrative offices located in Sarasota, Florida. The company was established in 1999 and its initial focus was technology licensing and transfer activities for lens-based and electronic wearable applications. In 2010, e-Vision created its own development platform to create tunable liquid crystal-based optics and wearable electronic frames. e-Vision believes that its technology will have a transformative influence on the complex lens systems required to bring what can be imagined to reality.

Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality, AR, VR and MR

Today there is a rush to develop products that interface with powerful computing advancements in Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality. e-Vision Smart Optics patents and development activities interface the sight and sound that is critical for the success of AR, VR and MR. e-Vision Smart Optics holds many other patents that are foundational to the development of reality-based products in both spectacle lens eyewear and the Electronic Contact Lens (ECL) contact technology.

About the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame

By encouraging discovery, the Florida Inventors Hall of Fame supports a culture of creativity that fuels innovation, drives economic growth, and encourages investment in Florida. The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame is a state-wide initiative dedicated to honoring and celebrating Florida inventors whose achievements have significantly advanced the quality of life for all Americans.

Florida consistently ranks among the top 10 states for most patents granted. The Florida Inventors Hall of Fame recognizes these inventors, inspires the next generation of innovators, and works to bring attention to Florida, as a state where research, innovation and discovery thrive, and where great inventors have lived and worked.

*e-Vision has no affiliation with Alcon, the largest eye care devices company in the world.

Florida Inventors Hall of Fame • 3720 Spectrum Boulevard, Tampa, FL 33612 www.floridainvents.org

e-Vision™ Smart Optics, Inc. 1144 Tallevast Rd, Suites 113-115 Sarasota, FL 34243 www.evisionoptics.com

Media Contact

Joel Zycheck, e-Vision Smart Optics Inc., 1 9413514580, info@evisionoptics.com

, www.evisionoptics.com

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SOURCE e-Vision Smart Optics Inc.

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KarbunWise Introduces Fast, Cost-Effective LCA Platform for the LEED v5 Era at Greenbuild 2026 in New York

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NEW YORK  , Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — As global property developers, architects, and manufacturers face rigorous new green building standards and cross-border carbon scrutiny, KarbunWise, an enterprise climate technology and advisory firm, announced its formal participation in the Greenbuild International Conference + Expo 2026 in New York City.

Exhibiting under this year’s Greenbuild theme, “Invest for Impact,” KarbunWise has launched a modern, cost-effective software to enable real estate developers, AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) firms, and industrial manufacturers to automate complex Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) with verifiable, audit-grade accuracy.

With the rollout of LEED v5, Whole-Building Life Cycle Assessments (WBLCA) and embodied carbon tracking have evolved from optional bonus credits into non-negotiable prerequisites. This is likely to scale the adoption of LCAs, and KarbunWise offers an alternative to legacy incumbent players that are expensive and not customer-centric. KarbunWise’s product translates Building Information Modeling (BIM) data and factory-floor inputs directly into submission-ready WBLCA models (aligned with MRp2 and MRc2 credits).

Representing KarbunWise at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center were the founders, Arjun Vijayaragavan and Divya Sukumar. “For years, carbon accounting and life cycle assessments were treated as passive, check-the-box exercises. Today, with LEED v5 mandating embodied carbon baselines and global supply chains enforcing strict transparency, carbon data has become commercial infrastructure. Bringing our platform to North America at Greenbuild marks a pivotal step in our mission to make sustainability data as trusted and audit-ready as financial data for 10,000 enterprises worldwide.” said Arjun Vijayaragavan, Founder & CEO of KarbunWise.

To accelerate adoption across US project teams, KarbunWise also announced a major Greenbuild show initiative: free first-year platform access for qualifying architecture firms, consultants, and developers visiting Booth #1044 during expo, backed by continuous 24/7 technical support from certified LCA practitioners.

Already trusted by more than 100 organisations across the UK, Middle East, and India, including listed conglomerates, leading bedding manufacturers, and global infrastructure contractors, KarbunWise’s platform connects over 200,000 verified LCA datapoints across international databases, including USLCI, Ecoinvent, and ÖKOBAUDAT.

About KarbunWise:

Founded in 2023, KarbunWise is an enterprise climate technology and advisory firm building the trust layer for global sustainability. The company combines an integrated, cloud-based software platform with deep consulting expertise to transform complex carbon and ESG data into audit-ready proof for regulators, enterprise buyers, and investors.

Mediacontact-
team@karbunwise.com 

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SOURCE KarbunWise

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Curios Launches Video-on-Demand Tools for Filmmakers as Vimeo On Demand Shuts Down

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The direct-to-fan marketplace gives independent filmmakers a new home to sell films, series, and memberships, with help migrating from Vimeo

AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Curios, the direct-to-fan entertainment marketplace, has launched a full set of video-on-demand tools for independent filmmakers and video creators. The launch gives creators affected by the closure of Vimeo On Demand a new place to sell their work directly to audiences, keep their sales revenue, and hold on to the customer relationships they have spent years building.

Vimeo is phasing out its On Demand service in stages. New uploads were blocked on August 22, 2026, and new purchases and subscriptions stopped on September 21, 2026. Final seller payouts were processed on September 24, and the platform will shut down completely on November 20, 2026. On that date, all Vimeo On Demand storefronts and purchase pages go offline, and viewers lose access to the films and series they previously bought or rented.

For filmmakers, the impact is immediate. Sales have already stopped, so every week without a new storefront means lost revenue. And with Vimeo only allowing sellers to export buyers who opted in to updates, many creators risk losing touch with a large part of their audience.

“Every time a platform shuts down, creators get a painful reminder that they never really owned their audience,” said Grant Powell, founder of Curios. “Filmmakers on Vimeo On Demand did everything right, and they’re still losing their storefront. We launched Curios so that can’t happen. You sell directly, you keep your revenue, and every buyer’s contact details are yours to keep, whatever happens next.”

A complete home for independent film

Curios gives filmmakers flexible ways to sell, including full support for TVOD and SVOD, with possible plans for AVOD in the future. Creators can sell titles to own permanently (Electronic sell-through / EST), for one-time rental (Download-to-rent / DTR), offer pay-per-view (PPV) access for events and premieres, and run subscription memberships covering an entire catalog, a single series, or selected titles.

Pre-orders, timed releases, and limited quantities help build excitement around a launch. Bundles and deluxe editions, automated upsells and cross-sells, coupons, and an affiliate program help filmmakers grow each sale and reach new audiences. Free claims let creators give away trailers, extras, or short films in exchange for viewers’ email addresses.

Filmmakers decide whether each title is streaming-only or downloadable. Buyers watch in the Curios mobile app, where films and series sit alongside ebooks, audiobooks, and music. To help creators get started, Curios has also published pricing guidance for film, suggesting typical ranges of $9.99 to $29.99 for titles sold to own.

Better economics and full access to buyers

Curios takes no commission on sales, so creators keep their full sale price. They pay for platform access through a Curios subscription, with a free plan available and no credit card required to sign up. As merchant of record, Curios collects and files sales tax and VAT worldwide, removing a major administrative burden for independent creators.

Filmmakers on Curios receive the contact details of every buyer, along with sales, traffic, and viewing analytics, so they can see how audiences engage with their work and market future releases directly.

Moving from Vimeo On Demand in three steps

Curios has published an automatic importer, and a step-by-step migration guide for Vimeo On Demand sellers. Filmmakers simply connect with Vimeo account to Curios, then Curios automatically migrates their original files, trailers, extras, and artwork directly from Vimeo. Finally, they replace their old Vimeo On Demand links with a single Curios link and let their fans know where to find them.

Curios will also import a filmmaker’s existing Vimeo buyers who opted in to updates. Imported customers will find the films they already own waiting in their Curios library, ready to watch, so viewers who were about to lose access can keep enjoying the work they paid for. Customer lists from other platforms can be imported as well.

Curios is continuing to expand its video tools, with caption and subtitle uploads, region restrictions, country-specific pricing, and smart TV apps currently in development.

Filmmakers can create a free account and read the full migration guide at studio.curios.com.

About Curios

Curios is a direct-to-fan entertainment and content marketplace helping creators publish, promote, sell, and distribute their work directly to audiences. Built for authors, musicians, filmmakers, comedians, and creators of all kinds, Curios supports digital and physical formats in one place.

Creators keep 100% of every sale, retain full ownership of their work, and get direct access to customer data. As merchant of record, Curios handles sales tax, along with customer support, content delivery, fraud disputes, and fast payouts, giving creators the infrastructure to sell direct without having to build it themselves.

Media Contact

Grant Powell, Curios, Inc, 1 3102952129, support@curios.com, https://www.curios.com

View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/curios-launches-video-on-demand-tools-for-filmmakers-as-vimeo-on-demand-shuts-down-302917739.html

SOURCE Curios, Inc

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Violet PR Wins Five PRSA-NJ Awards for Campaigns Driving Economic Growth and Innovation

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Award-winning media relations initiatives generated hundreds of news stories for clients

MONTCLAIR, N.J., Oct. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Violet PR, a national public relations agency specializing in economic development and place branding, has earned five awards from the Public Relations Society of America’s New Jersey Chapter (PRSA-NJ). Together, the campaigns generated more than 425 earned media placements in national, international, regional and niche outlets.

The winning programs ranged from launching a major fitness facility and promoting the growing film industry in New Jersey to showcasing Pittsburgh International Airport’s new terminal, navigating international trade uncertainty in Topeka, Kan., and positioning the Brooklyn Navy Yard as an innovation hub.

“These awards reflect the range of challenges our team helps clients navigate – including building support for emerging industries and elevating major infrastructure investments,” said April Mason, CEO and founder of Violet PR. “Whether we’re promoting a new airport terminal or helping a community navigate international trade uncertainty, our job is to uncover the stories that matter, connect them with influential audiences and deliver results that support our clients’ broader goals.”

For the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), Violet PR’s “Hollywood East: New Jersey Takes Center Stage” campaign earned PRSA-NJ recognition in the “Community Relations” category. Working with the New Jersey Motion Picture & Television Commission and NJEDA, the agency helped build support for the state’s expanding film and television industry by highlighting its economic impact, career opportunities and benefits for local businesses and communities. Over 10 months, the campaign generated 38 earned media placements and more than 336 million impressions.

Violet PR also earned an “Events” award for “Building More Than Muscle: Launching a New Jersey Success Story,” developed for Iron Culture’s new flagship gym in West Orange, N.J. The campaign promoted the grand opening of the $10 million fitness facility, bringing together elected officials, business leaders and community members while generating 45 earned media placements.

The Montclair, N.J.-headquartered agency also won a “Media Relations” award for its campaign, “Brooklyn Navy Yard: From Shipyard to Innovation Engine,” which spotlighted the historic waterfront campus’s transformation into a hub for advanced manufacturing, entrepreneurship and innovation. The campaign generated 85 earned media placements, reaching an audience of 662 million.

The agency’s national work was recognized as well. The “Ready for Takeoff: Commemorating Pittsburgh’s New Airport Opening (2025)” campaign for Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT) earned an award in the “Public Affairs” category. Violet PR executed a strategic communications campaign surrounding the opening of PIT’s new terminal, securing more than 200 earned media placements across national news, business, travel and aviation outlets, with a combined audience reach exceeding 525 million.

In Topeka, Kan., Violet PR’s “The U.S. City Bridging Borders: How Topeka Tackled Tariffs” campaign was recognized in the “PR on a Shoestring Budget” category. As rising U.S.-Canada tariffs threatened up to 20% of local jobs, the agency transformed a complex international trade issue into a compelling story about the economic ties between Kansas and Canada. With a budget of just $10,000 over two months, the campaign secured 57 media placements, with an estimated reach of 224 million.

“What makes these awards especially meaningful is that they recognize five very different campaigns, each requiring a tailored strategy, creative thinking and close collaboration with our clients,” said Christina Forrest, vice president, Violet PR. “We take pride in developing strategic campaigns that deliver meaningful results for our clients, and we’re grateful to PRSA-NJ for the honor.”

The PRSA-NJ Pyramid Awards recognize excellence in public relations and communications, honoring the strategy, creativity and impact of agencies and in-house teams across New Jersey and beyond.

Violet PR continues to earn national recognition for its growth and economic development industry expertise. The agency ranked No. 96 on O’Dwyer’s 2026 list of independent public relations firms following 22.6% year-over-year growth in 2025 and has appeared on the Inc. 5000 list for three consecutive years. Violet PR opened its second office in New York City this year.

About Violet PR

Violet PR is an award-winning public relations firm, recognized nationally as a top agency specializing in economic development, commercial real estate and place branding. The agency partners with cities, states, regions, developers, destinations and mission-driven organizations to build visibility through earned media, thought leadership, social media and strategic storytelling.

Founded in 2010, Violet PR helps clients attract investment, business growth, visitors and talent through earned media campaigns. For more information, visit www.violetpr.com.

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SOURCE Violet Public Relations

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