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Eyewear Innovation: Autofocus Lenses?
The basic design for eyeglasses has been around since antiquity. Altering the shape of a spectacle lens bends incoming light rays so that, upon entering the eye, an image lands precisely on the retina. Nearsighted myopes wear lenses with concave surfaces that generate minus focusing power, whereas farsighted hyperopes are corrected with convex lenses that provide plus focusing power.
Here's a quick quiz: Do you recall who is credited with inventing bifocal spectacles? (answer posted below).
Optical scientists at the University of Arizona (a major vision research institute) have announced a novel spectacle lens design that requires no lens grinding and permits prescription updates to be programmed with a computer. Researchers have applied the physics of the familiar liquid crystal display (LCD) to prescription eyewear.
Similar to a laptop computer screen (like the one being used to compose this blog,) UA inventors created a sandwich made of two pieces of flat glass separated by an ultra-delicate film of liquid crystal. This inner layer is only one twentieth the width of a human hair.
Light rays penetrating this transparent 'sandwich' are bent depending on the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules. It only takes a tiny bit of electricity to manipulate these molecules and customize the specific optical qualities of these remarkable 'liquid lenses'.
The first prototype was designed to be used as a bifocal - flick the switch to see at near. In the future UA researchers hope to develop a full-time LCD spectacle that will continuously autofocus in response to the wearer's instantaneous visual requirements. Very cool, indeed!
(Quiz answer: Benjamin Franklin invented bifocal spectacles in 1785).
Related Topics: Common Vision Problems , Vision Problems in Aging Adults
Technorati Tags: eyeglasses, vision, innovation
Here's a quick quiz: Do you recall who is credited with inventing bifocal spectacles? (answer posted below).
Optical scientists at the University of Arizona (a major vision research institute) have announced a novel spectacle lens design that requires no lens grinding and permits prescription updates to be programmed with a computer. Researchers have applied the physics of the familiar liquid crystal display (LCD) to prescription eyewear.
Similar to a laptop computer screen (like the one being used to compose this blog,) UA inventors created a sandwich made of two pieces of flat glass separated by an ultra-delicate film of liquid crystal. This inner layer is only one twentieth the width of a human hair.
Light rays penetrating this transparent 'sandwich' are bent depending on the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules. It only takes a tiny bit of electricity to manipulate these molecules and customize the specific optical qualities of these remarkable 'liquid lenses'.
The first prototype was designed to be used as a bifocal - flick the switch to see at near. In the future UA researchers hope to develop a full-time LCD spectacle that will continuously autofocus in response to the wearer's instantaneous visual requirements. Very cool, indeed!
(Quiz answer: Benjamin Franklin invented bifocal spectacles in 1785).
Related Topics: Common Vision Problems , Vision Problems in Aging Adults
Technorati Tags: eyeglasses, vision, innovation
