McCray Optical

Accelerating Lens Production with Augmented Reality

McCray Optical, a lens and eyewear manufacturer, ran a three week mail based process for clip on lenses, leaving customers without glasses the whole time. Ollon built a React Native app using augmented reality to measure frames in store, letting staff walk customers through customization on the spot. Customers now complete measurement to order in a single store visit, keeping their glasses throughout.

Situation

McCray Optical, a manufacturer of lenses and glassware, had a lengthy three week process for providing clip on lenses, which they were aiming to shorten. Customers had to ship their glasses to the company for measurement, wait for manufacturing, and then receive the finished product by mail.

Solution

McCray engaged Ollon to develop a mobile app for use in stores to streamline the process, using augmented reality. The app is used in tandem with the McCray Optical Align Device (a purposefully designed and measured board) which uses markers to measure the customer's frames. The App also allows the Opthamologist retail staff to then create an order for the customer by showcasing the available customizations available to the customer such as their frame and lens colours, frame styles and add ons. The order is then submitted and can be tracked using the app.

Results

This new process allows customers to have their glasses measured and purchase their new lenses onsite, eliminating the need to be without their glasses for weeks. This new approach has significantly improved customer convenience and satisfaction.

Technologies

React Native, OpenCV, Java, Objective-C, Typescript

Our Expertise in Action

Interactive Project

McCray Optical's traditional clip on lens process kept customers and staff apart for the whole measurement step, since glasses had to be shipped out and measured somewhere else before anyone acted on the results. Ollon turned that measurement into something a customer and retail staff member did together at the counter, using a purpose built alignment device that captured precise frame measurements in real time while the customer stood in front of it. Staff could then walk the customer through frame styles, lens colors, and add ons directly on the spot, submitting the order before the customer left. What used to be a process conducted entirely by mail became a face to face exchange between staff and customer.

Mobile Application Development

McCray Optical needed one application that worked identically for retail staff on both Android and iOS, since store hardware varied by location and the app could not behave differently depending on which device happened to be on the counter. Ollon built the application in React Native with a shared codebase across both platforms, then wrote native plugins in Objective C and Java specifically for the camera functionality the AR measurement feature depended on. That split let most of the app stay platform agnostic while the parts that genuinely needed native code got it. The result was one application that behaved consistently everywhere it was deployed.

VR/AR

Measuring a customer's frames accurately enough to manufacture a matching lens meant McCray Optical needed real augmented reality, not just a camera pointed at a pair of glasses. Ollon built that AR measurement system using ArUco marker detection through OpenCV, calculating frame geometry through Euler angle decomposition and pairing it with a bubble tilt interface that guided staff to hold the device at the correct angle during capture. Supporting multiple versions of the physical alignment device meant the AR detection logic had to generalize across hardware. That AR system is what let a phone camera replace a process that used to require shipping physical glasses out for manual measurement.

Business System Integrations

Retail staff needed to know which physical alignment device was assigned to their store location before starting a measurement, information that lived in McCray Optical's e-commerce backend, not the mobile app itself. Ollon integrated the application directly with McCray's PrestaShop platform, pulling the list of align devices and their store assignments so the app always knew which hardware configuration it was working with. That integration meant adding a new alignment device to a store was a backend change, not a mobile app update pushed through app store review. The connection between the app and the existing system is what let hardware rollout stay decoupled from mobile release cycles.

Quality assurance and testing

Manufacturing a lens based on a bad measurement is not a bug McCray Optical could fix with a patch after the fact, so the app's core measurement feature needed real testing before anything shipped. Ollon tested the application directly on physical Android and iOS devices rather than relying only on simulators, tracking issues through a formal bug report process, and built out multiple deployment environments so new features and fixes could be validated before reaching the version retail staff actually used in stores. That testing discipline meant problems with the app's accuracy or stability got caught before they turned into a lens manufactured to the wrong measurements.

Cross-browser and device compatibility testing

McCray Optical's application ran on retail hardware that varied by store, including different phone models and tablets, and the AR measurement feature needed to behave consistently across all of them. Ollon designed separate layouts for tablet and phone form factors, then tested the application directly on physical Android and iOS devices to confirm the camera based measurement worked reliably across different hardware. That device specific testing caught issues that only showed up on certain screen sizes or camera configurations, problems a simulator alone would not have surfaced. The application held up across the actual mix of devices McCray Optical's stores were using, not just the models it was built and demoed on.