p2pnet - rss feed: ‘Bye-bye bifocals?
OT news / p2pnet: Bi-focal glasses for near reading in one half and perhaps distance vision in the other are a fact of life when you get older. But liquid crystal lenses able to, "change between long-distance and reading modes with the flick of a switch" have been developed by University of Arizona researchers.
Guoqiang Li and his colleagues, "sandwiched a thin layer of liquid crystal between two layers of glass and laced it with concentric rings of electrodes," says the Scientific American.
"When turned on, the electrodes reconfigure the focusing power of the lens for either near or far vision, allowing the entire lens to promote the desired effect in less than a second."
But Cardiff University optometry expert Professor Mike Boulton isn’t enthusiastic about the prospects.
"The problem is that liquid crystal is quite heavy and expensive," the BBC has him saying.
"Because it is heavy it means thick frames have to be used and people often choose glasses partly because of the style so I cannot see these glasses replacing bifocal and varifocal."
Also See:
Scientific American - Scientists Build Liquid Crystal Bifocals, April 4, 2006
BBC - Hope over self-focusing glasses, April 4, 2006
