With its ambitions to disrupt the hearing aid market with a well-greased refiring of the old idea of hearing glasses, EssilorLuxottica has announced that it has received simultaneous clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and CE marking from the European Commission (EC) for its Nuance product.

This paves the way for the arrival of Nuance Audio on both US and European markets. In January, the product was on show at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where it was recognised as an Honoree in the CES 2025 Innovation Awards.  Perhaps the more glittering plunder from the event was being able to show off technology to other top brands, industry executives, 6,000 members of the media, government leaders, over 141,000 attendees, and represenatives of innovative start-ups, the kind of outfits that have propelled this hearing glasses idea into the marketplace: on January 1, 2025, EssilorLuxottica announced the acquisition of Pulse Audition in France, having acquired the  Tel Aviv-based hearing technology startup, Nuance in 2023.

 

Hearing component “completely invisible” in Nuance glasses

 

The company has integrated the audio element into the sight glasses in a “completely invisible” manner, and claims this will get it over the stigma barrier. Nuance has speakers embedded in the frame near the ears, reflecting the company’s vision “to revolutionise the underserved hearing solutions market by eliminating the obstacles that have stood in the way of adoption of traditional hearing aids”.

“We didn’t just aim to combine two medical devices – we created an entirely new smart glasses form factor to support the two human senses we depend on the most. It is not only groundbreaking but also incredibly accessible,” says EssilorLuxottica’s CEO Francesco Milleri.

Source: EssilorLuxottica