REAL LIFE NEWS: ONE PAIR OF GLASSES FOR LIFE
by Hazed
Just occasionally, an innovation comes along that fulfils a need I have personally experienced. I am not talking about fantastical things like flying cars or my own personal teleporter. No, this story is about an upgrade to the humble pair of glasses.
In a new development, “smart glasses” will change the shape of their lenses according to your needs. So having separate reading glasses and long distance glasses, like I do, will become unnecessary – one pair will do the job.
The glasses have liquid lenses which change shape according to the distance of the objects you are looking at. The lenses are made out of glycerine, a thick clear liquid which is enclosed in flexible membranes which can be moved back and forth mechanically to change the curvature of the lens. The frame contains a distance meter which measures how far nearby objects are from the wearer’s face by using infrared light. The meter signals the lens so its curve can be adjusted. The change happens fast, so the wearer can switch focus in just 14 milliseconds.
A smartphone app is used to calibrate the lenses with your particular prescription – which means that if your prescription changes you don’t need to shell out for a new pair of specs, you can just update the lenses using the app.
The smart glasses have been developed by researchers at the University of Utah. They still need some work before they are ready to be sold – the frames are very thick and bulky and don’t exactly look cool! But the developers don’t think overcoming these issues will be a problem, and they hope to have a product ready to sell in two to three years.
This is fantastic. I would be prepared to pay a lot for the convenience of just using one pair of glasses!
