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Open Knowledge - Water based eyeglasses: no optician required

Jan. 3rd, 2009

08:16 pm - Water based eyeglasses: no optician required

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British inventor Josh Silver, a former professor of physics at Oxford University, has come up with a game-changer of a product design with his water-lensed glasses.

Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.

You can mass-produce millions of these, rather than manufacturing myriad individual lenses each tuned to a user’s specific vision deficiencies. And while the one-size-fits-all mentality may not fly in developed nations, Silver’s goal is to help the hundreds of millions of people in developing countries who suffer from poor eyesight.

Via core77

Original: craschworks - comments

Comments:

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From:[info]evillinn
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:25 am (UTC)
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that's absolutely awesome. I hope someone takes this up and gets them made and distributed where they are needed. What a cool idea.
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From:[info]cappsize
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:27 am (UTC)
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OMG. We used the same phrase to describe our mutual delight in this. And that is: ABSOLUTELY AWESOME.
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From:[info]ladykalana
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:27 am (UTC)
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DUDE!
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From:[info]cappsize
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:28 am (UTC)
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I KNOW! It freaked me out too!!!
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From:[info]evillinn
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:49 am (UTC)
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clearly great minds...both of us! crasch must be overwhelmed by it. ;)
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From:[info]cappsize
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:26 am (UTC)
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WOW. That is absolutely awesome.
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From:[info]ladykalana
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:26 am (UTC)
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Wow. That is pretty freaking awesome. Hell, I'd buy them! I know I need glasses, and I'd much rather have some I can upgrade at will.
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From:[info]ladykalana
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:27 am (UTC)
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Heh, I love the consistency of wording in the first three comments :)
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From:[info]cappsize
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:30 am (UTC)
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OMG. YOU COULD DO THIS WITH CAMERA LENSES!!!!!

WHOA. Ok, my brain hurts now.
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From:[info]vyus
Date:January 4th, 2009 07:38 pm (UTC)
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they could do it with a camera lens, but i have a feeling the clarity/purity of regular lenses would be more apparent in photos, especially zoomed ones.
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From:[info]jenarael
Date:January 5th, 2009 12:08 am (UTC)
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I thought of that too!!! Although I don't know if water near an expensive camera would make me nervous or not... :)
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From:[info]cappsize
Date:January 5th, 2009 12:15 am (UTC)
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It would make me nervous, too. But something along the lines of the device used for these glasses... sort of a snap on piece of plastic & glass with water in the center & a syringe type filling arrangement~~ I don't think it would ever be as accurate as a glass lens, probably never be suited for professional work, but with some tweaking it might be an inexpensive alternative for those of us who just play with our cameras mostly anyway.
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From:[info]polyanarch
Date:January 4th, 2009 03:43 am (UTC)
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How do they account for near/far-sight correction and astigmatisms?
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From:[info]reichart
Date:January 4th, 2009 04:05 am (UTC)
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In theory, you could have the ring (around the sac) be elliptical, and that two could rotate until things are clear.

I don't understand your question regarding near/far, though, since that is what the lenses correct for in the first place.

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From:[info]ersigh
Date:January 4th, 2009 09:24 am (UTC)
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That's so fucking awesome!

I could use some of those... being poor and needing glasses and all.
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From:[info]tamtrible
Date:January 9th, 2009 12:46 am (UTC)
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Actually, I can see them having (limited) use even in developed nations.
Cheap glasses for children who break/scratch/damage their glasses all the time.
Cheap glasses for a second/backup pair, for those blind without their glasses.
Loaner glasses for temporary vision conditions (if there are any that would require glasses) and/or for accident victims and the like who are suddenly without their glasses.
Cheap glasses for people on some flavor of public assistance or otherwise too poor to get regular glasses.
Depending on how easy it would be to make them adjustable more or less on the fly, variable glasses for people who need reading and far-distance glasses and don't like bifocals.

But I think there'd, at least, need to be some way to correct for astigmatism for them to be too terribly useful for people who have alternatives besides these and stumbling around nearly blind.
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