Adjustable glasses for children in developing countries

Guardian : A British atomic physicist has developed glasses whose lenses can be adjusted by the wearer. Joshua Silver’s adaptive lenses consist of two thin membranes separated by silicone gel; the wearer looks at an eye chart and pumps in fluid to adjust the curvature of the lens and, hence, its prescription, writes Robin McKie for the Guardian. Silver is working with the World Bank on a way to distribute some 200 million pairs of the glasses to children in developing countries; he believes that improving eyesight can improve their education and employment prospects. His two immediate goals are to lower the cost of producing the glasses and to make them more stylish, so young people will want to wear them. The idea of self-adjusting eyewear is not new. For example, physicist Stephen Kurtin has for the past several years been developing and marketing Superfocus , adjustable lenses designed for people who would otherwise need either several pairs of glasses for different activities, or bi- or trifocal lenses.