Interesting to see Ocutech pop up on HN!

I've used one of their manual ones for years and it made a huge difference for me in being able to view presentations and lectures while also taking notes. However, the experience is not like traditional bifocals, it's like having a small telescope stuck to your glasses (because of course that's what it is). The telescope has a relatively narrow field of view as you'd expect, and is only visible to one eye. Frankly I don't understand how folks can use these while driving or moving around.

As far as I know, the main use while driving is reading signs, so the rest of your vision is good enough to drive, but you might need the bioptic to read a street sign for navigating. I never really thought of them for lectures, but that’s not a bad idea. However, in an era of smartphones, having a ready telephoto zoom (digital or optical) in your pocket is also quite handy. (Not that it would help while driving!)

You're absolutely right about the cell phone thing; I use my phone for things like reading distant signs (while mostly stationary) and reading restaurant menus that are posted on the wall (I probably have taken hundreds of such pictures). Using the phone to watch videos or keep up with whiteboard exercises would be challenging without a tripod to hold the phone and probably a custom camera app that lets you quickly pan a live zoomed image.

I've always found it hard to quickly locate distant objects in my ocutech though given the limited FOV, and doing it at driving speed must require a lot of deliberate practice.