TruFocals

$895. I read a article recently about a simalar pair of glass for third world users and these would only cost £10.00???

There is a difference between a $10 pair of drug store reading glasses and the prescription multifocal photo reactive lens I use. Also quite a price difference of $300+ Still there may be advanages to such expensive adjustable lens. As older any computer user with neck injuries knows, finding the adjustable solution reading distance sounds like good idea. Just don't trying driving with such a limited system. Multifocal lens permit focus on the dash as well as focus on traffic. I question if these hand adjustable focus lens can do that. Ellen

Not worth $800 to me. Much simpler to just lift my chin up and down. If you have to use your hand to move it 5 times a minute, you'd drive yourself crazy.

I'll wait for the automatic one. Maybe something could measure the distance between your eyes to estimate the distance you're viewing. Then it would use an energy source, battery maybe, to inflate and deflate the lens.

Interesting on how people comment on something they have never seen or tried. In this case, it is not entirely their fault. The little demo on the TruFocals front page is misleading. I don't know why they still have it up.

I have these things. I have been wearing them for a while now. They are even better than I had expected! I have not had this kind of vision since I was a kid.

Focus them for the task at hand. One setting does just fine for driving the car. Both the instruments and the signs way down the road are in sharp focus. Focus them at a middle distance at a meeting, and everyone around the table is in focus. The key is the ability to focus to any distance.

The act of focussing itself is almost automatic. You simply look at something, move the lever and it pops into focus. After a while, it just seems natural that you SHOULD be able to focus your glasses.

I have worn these glasses for about a month. Use them for everything, except when jogging when I still use contact lenses. What surprised me most about Trufocals is the depth of field. I am severely nearsighted (-7 D)and for driving I move the slider all the way over to clearly see the road and street signs in the distance. Nevertheless, without touching the slider, I can easily read the numbers on the speedometer and the other dash board instruments - even the letters and symbols on NAV system!

plumbmadron - The invention you're referring to is described here:

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/dec/22/diy-adjustable-glasses-josh-silver

An excerpt:
"Silver has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes. Inside the device's tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.

The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription."

TruFocals appear to be instantly adjustable, whilst Josh Silver's glasses for the poor need a syringe to be adjusted, and are thus designed not as adjustable multifocals, but rather a device to eliminate the need for an optometrist and give access to glasses for the world's poor.

Since we don't hear about millions of glasses for the poor being distributed, and that 2008 article is the latest article I could find about the invention, perhaps Josh Silver lacks the funding to get his glasses off the ground. Too bad, it's an amazing idea (contextually different than TruFocus).

Shame I can't edit my previous comment.. the last word there should, of course, have been "TruFocals" rather than "TruFocus".

Your right @genedoug. It shouldn't be too difficult to make the focussing automatic. The technology already exists in the focussing system for any point and shoot camera.

I guess the only issue might be the need to be able to override the automatic system if the background is too confusing for the system to focus properly or if it is too dark.

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