So is this a scam, a joke or a technological miracle?

Bob001

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I was surprised recently to see Penn Jillette selling eyeglasses on a late-night cable TV commercial. Apparently these "Superfocus" glasses use a liquid-filled membrane in the lens to adjust the prescription so a single pair of glasses can be used for near and far vision and points in between. Maybe not a bad idea, if it works. The thing is that they are selling for upwards of $700 a pair. The concept seems to be based on a program to get eyeglasses to developing countries with limited access to medical care. That idea was/is that a standard pair of glasses with a liquid-filled lens can be adjusted to fit anybody without needing eye doctors or opticians. The program apparently hasn't gotten very far, but the original intent was to manufacture and distribute these glasses for a few dollars each. Only American marketing could turn a third-world relief item into a luxury toy. Sounds like something Penn would usually sneer at.

http://www.superfocus.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/27/health/27glasses.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=adjustable-eyeglasses-poor
 
Liquid filled lenses which can adjust focus are real. I could link you to several patents on such things, even for use in eyeglasses.


Whether they're worth $700 is another question.....
 
Using liquid membranes as adjustable lenses for cameras has been done for some years now. I had no idea that they're making those big enough to use as glasses by now. Then again, I guess there was no reason not to expect that.
 
The last time I saw something like this they were being touted as a cheap way to provide glasses for the third world. Quite ironic then that they cost $700 in the first world!
 
richardm said:
The last time I saw something like this they were being touted as a cheap way to provide glasses for the third world. Quite ironic then that they cost $700 in the first world!
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It's not the first time something like this has happened, though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windup_radio#History


The modern clockwork radio was designed and patented in 1991 by British inventor Trevor Baylis as a response to the AIDS crisis. He envisioned it as a radio for use by poor people in developing countries without access to batteries. In 1994, British Accountant Chris Staines and his South African Partner, Rory Stear, secured the worldwide license to the invention and cofounded Baygen Power Industries (now Freeplay Energy PLC), which produced the first commercial model. The key to its design was the use of a constant velocity spring to store the potential energy.
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It actually makes sense, though. You use sales to the rich people to fund subsidized versions for the poor people. It's probably a lot easier to get people to pay for a cool radio, or eyeglasses, than to just donate money.
 
So practically these are adjustable field glasses in eye-glasses size and shape. A great idea, people seldom carry field glasses with them, but situations arise when you would wish to see a distant object more clearly.

I doubt that the product is advanced enough to correct astigmatism, so they will not give a sharp view to some 33% of people.
 
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So to the OP question: Neither.

Simply technological progress.

Hans
 
Bob001 said:
I didn't mean to imply that I doubted the existence of liquid-filled lenses. What surprised me was that a device basically designed for people too poor to get regular glasses is being promoted as expensive cutting-edge technology, and that Penn is associated with it.
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To be entirely fair, nobody ever said that they WERE cheap to produce, at any point up to the present. The idea was that they COULD end up cheaper if they end up being mass produced and stored/transported in bulk.

But generally before a thing ends up mass-produced and cheap, it usually is expensive new tech.

The same held for everything else. Cars are now a must for everyone in the first world, but once they were expensive hand-crafted toys for only the rich. Computers are so cheap and widespread that it's easier to just put one in a washing machine than to make the old program wheels with relays and springs, but once they were so big and expensive that someone famously predicted that in the next decades there'll be a world market for maybe half a dozen or so. And so on.

Same here. Eventually they will get to the point of being cheap glasses for the third world. But at first production will be tiny, there'll be a lot of R&D involved, and, well, they have to recoup those costs somehow. So it follows the usual model where it's at first an expensive new toy, and the early adopters essentially subsidize the R&D for the future version that'll be better and cheaper.
 
It's OK deciding you want to use it as a low cost option for the 3rd world but yu have to get costs down far enough to make it cheap enough. Maybe the manufacturing costs are still high enough to make it a luxury gadget.
 
JJM 777 said:
So practically these are adjustable field glasses in eye-glasses size and shape. A great idea, people seldom carry field glasses with them, but situations arise when you would wish to see a distant object more clearly.

I doubt that the product is advanced enough to correct astigmatism, so they will not give a sharp view to some 33% of people.
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Again, there are ways to deal with astigmatism, but I'm not sure if they're actually being used.

US Patent Application 20100295987:

[0065] In this embodiment, a further set of constants .gamma.1 to .gamma.4 are used, multiplied by an astigmatism signal Astig to be applied to the lens. Astigmatism in a liquid lens can be controlled by applying a higher voltage to two opposing electrodes than is applied to the other two opposing electrodes. Astigmatism is characterized by a difference of curvature radii of the interface in two perpendicular directions. In image stabilization applications, astigmatism is an optical aberration that should generally be minimized. In embodiments described herein comprising four contacts/electrodes arranged at 90 degree spacing, astigmatism is likely to be the predominant non-spherical deformation of the liquid interface.
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I'd hazard a guess that it's cement or white sealant used for that nearby house that some contractor dumped to clean out his truck. It's off the end of a dead-end road and there are tire tracks around it.
 
Horatius said:
there are ways to deal with astigmatism, but I'm not sure if they're actually being used
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Not sure what you mean with the comment. Any optician in western countries will measure and correct mild astigmatism. Static glass lenses can be customized to correct mild astigmatism. But I wonder if the correction works in this case when the user has the power to zoom in and out. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn´t, idunno.
 
They're like Harry Potter glasses, only not as stylish.*


*To be fair I didn't look through the whole site to see if they had other styles/colors.
 
JJM 777 said:
Not sure what you mean with the comment. Any optician in western countries will measure and correct mild astigmatism. Static glass lenses can be customized to correct mild astigmatism. But I wonder if the correction works in this case when the user has the power to zoom in and out. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn´t, idunno.
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Did you read the quote? There are ways to control astigmatism in liquid lenses, is the point. It's more involved than just altering the focus, so it might not be practical for everyday wear glasses, but is it possible, if you want it badly enough.
 
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