About
If you've got a story, picture, or link that's beyond belief, send it to tipline@haveigotoneforyou.com with your name and where you heard about it and we'll add it!
Accounts
Click here to check if anything new just came in.
August 17 2010
For the Aging, Four-Eyed Astronaut: Fancy Space Bifocals
One of the requirements for flying in a spaceship used to be near-perfect vision. When NASA relaxed its vision standards (to 20/200 or better uncorrected, correctable to 20/20 each eye for a mission specialist) they in turn created a new requirement–for near-perfect astronaut eyeglasses.
TruFocals (made by Zoom Focus Eyewear, LLC) might improve current astronaut spectacles by allowing space-travelers to focus mid-float on both near and far objects, whether they’re dealing with experiments or cooling loop warning indicators. As Scientific American reports, the glasses are currently undergoing NASA evaluation for space readiness–tests that include burning. The lenses will correct the condition known as presbyopia, in which aging people’s eyes lose focusing ability, making it difficult to see near objects. That’s the condition that causes people with good eyes to pick up reading glasses, and those with glasses to turn to bifocals.
These space glasses aren’t much like your grandma’s bifocals. TruFocals have two lenses for each eye: the outer lens uses the person’s usual prescription and the inner lens (closer to the the eye) is flexible and controllable by a slider on the eyeglasses’ bridge. With a little slide the shape of the inner lens changes, allowing the wearer to adjust their focus. That could be handy in an environment like the International Space Station, where floating astronauts may be trying to focus on things from odd angles.
The round shape is a necessity for the glasses to work best, Stephen Kurtin the glasses’ inventor told Scientific American, not a fashion decision:
“Some people say they’re cool, and some say they’re butt ugly.”
NASA may approve the glasses in time for the next space mission, though, as shown in the target-practice video below, the lenses are already available for planet dwelling four-eyes.
Related content:
Discoblog: E-focals: Electric Eyeglasses Are the New Bifocals
Discoblog: Cheap “Liquid Glasses” Bring Clear Vision to the Poor
Discoblog: Contacts Claim to Fix Your Vision While You Sleep
Discoblog: Will the Laptops of the Future Be a Pair of Eye Glasses?
Discoblog: Possible Cure For Blindness: Implanting a Telescope in Your Eye
Image: ZOOM FOCUS EYEWEAR LLC
June 21 2010
E-focals: Electric Eyeglasses Are the New Bifocals
Benjamin Franklin would be proud. The tinkerer who loved playing with electricity and allegedly invented the bifocals might have been glad to know that one company has now brought the two things together: PixelOptics has designed a pair of powered specs that can track users’ eyes and automatically adjust the glasses’ focal length, depending on if the wearer needs to see close-up or far-away.
The glasses use liquid crystals, which can change how much they bend light when an electrical current runs through them. A video demonstration of what a wearer might see is available on PixelOptics’ website, and the company hopes that the glasses will be available in the United States before the end of 2010.
Peter Zieman, director of European sales for PixelOptics, said the device uses motion tracking software similar to the iPhone, and told The Telegraph:
“In essence, glasses haven’t changed all that much since they were first invented. The most recent development was transition lenses that tint in sunlight, but even that was 15 years ago…. Our glasses bring modern technology to an old solution.”
Perhaps Zieman doesn’t give other eye-wear inventors enough credit; for example, in 2008 a retired physics professor Josh Silver created a pair of fluid-filled spectacles that could change strength when the amount of liquid inside varied.
Still, as Star Trek fans might agree, electric eyeglasses really are more futuristic.
Related content:
DISCOVER: Not Your Father’s Bifocals
Discoblog: Cheap “Liquid Glasses” Bring Clear Vision to the Poor
Discoblog: Contacts Claim to Fix Your Vision While You Sleep
Discoblog: Will the Laptops of the Future Be a Pair of Eye Glasses?
Discoblog: Possible Cure For Blindness: Implanting a Telescope in Your Eye
Image: flickr / Franklin College
Maybe Soup is currently being updated? I'll try again automatically in a few seconds...
