in march 2013, the boston-startup laforge optical was founded by five former and current students of the rochester institute of technology, with the intention to design and market an eyewear with an embedded heads-up display system. in december 2013, the company launched pre-order sales of its icis eyewear on the company's official website for $220. this plan was then abandoned for the release of a new pair of eyewear laforge dubbed shima. these went on sale on the company's official website for $590 under the marketing banner of an alpha/beta product release. since then there have been multiple delays and a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the actual availability of the glasses.