Adspecs

Adspecs

Nominated by krdclay

Designer

Josh Silver, Center for Vision in the Developing World

Keywords

glasses, developing, vision, uk, oxford

Description

Although in many parts of the developing world physical access to the glasses is expensive and rare, this is a solvable problem. Glasses can be made inexpensively and plentifully, and are already being supplied like this worldwide.

The major problem to overcome is a lack of personnel to fit them. Highly trained optometrists are very rare in many parts of the developing world, and often leave to work in countries where their skills will bring them better pay.

The Adspec glasses propose a very interesting solution.

http://www.vdw.ox.ac.uk/5minuteintro.htm

Comments (3)

    1. isa978
    2. great!
    1. krdclay
    2. To change the power of the lens, the user turns the wheels on the syringes on the arms to pump more or less silicone oil into the lenses (which are simply two flexible membranes, protected by a hard plastic layer), changing their shape. When done, the user simply tightens the screws on each side of the frame and cuts off the syringes and tubing - transforming the Adspecs into a normal pair of glasses in a few minutes!

      You can watch him speak at TED:
      http://blog.ted.com/2009/07/session_2_runni_2.php
    1. Bill
    2. These are amazing!
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