  We analyze the scenario of modulating the potential strength of bound atoms
in an optical honeycomb lattice patterned by an electric field to emulate
uniaxial strain. This modulation can be achieved by a combination of the
strength of the patterned electric field and gauge vector effects using the
Floquet approach. We show that such a modulation allows one to follow through a
topological transition between a semi-metal and a band insulator, when two
non-equivalent $K$ points merge as a function of the electric field strength.
We explicitly compute the wavefunctions for the moving $K$ points and the Chern
numbers up to the transition. Anisotropic effective masses and the insulating
gap are described close to the semimetal-insulator transition.
