Fed II Star - April 30, 2006

REAL LIFE NEWS: DEVELOPMENTS IN EYEGLASSES

Hearing Glasses

Two new developments in the field of eyeglasses were announced recently. First off is a Dutch company which has launched a hearing aid in the form of a pair of glasses - taking care of two deficiencies in one go, as it were! The "hearing glasses" are called Varibel. To capture and relay sound to the ears, microphones, signal processing software and miniature speakers are contained in the arms of the frames.

Many people over 60 use hearing aids to try and help cope with the loss of hearing that happens in old age. However, many people experience a loss of high-frequency discrimination, so simply amplifying all sounds doesn't always help. A hearing aid that amplifies sounds from all directions will just intensify background noise as well as the conversation you want to hear, making confusing noise louder and more annoying. The solution to the problem, which has been tried with digital hearing aids in the ear, is to have several directional microphones that make the hearing aid more sensitive in certain directions (usually facing forward) - so whatever you are looking at will be amplified more than noise behind you or to the sides. That's how the Varibel glasses work; the arms of the hearing-glasses contain multiple microphones. Users have tried and tested the system and commented positively.

The hearing-glasses should go on sale in The Netherlands shortly.

Liquid-crystal Glasses

The other development is a very exciting one for anybody who has to wear bifocals: liquid-crystal eyeglasses, developed by researchers at the University of Arizona. These lenses automatically adjust their focus depending on where you are looking, so there won't be any need for glasses with split lenses.

"The lens is 'switchable' between two states. The wearer has a whole picture for viewing," Guoqiang Li, assistant research professor of Optical Sciences of the University of Arizona and member of the team of scientists, said.

No news on when - or whether - the glasses will be produced commercially, but they should be a huge success!