Adjustable Vision for 1 Billion of World's Poorest People
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California 
on 12.24.08
Photo via Waffler
Josh Silver, a physics professor at Oxford university, is working hard to reach a very big goal: glasses on the faces of 1 billion of the world’s poorest, visually impaired citizens.
He’s created a pair of glasses that can be adjusted by the user for vision, which makes them relatively inexpensive and practical. He’s trying to distribute them to people who can’t afford glasses or trips to the optometrist, to ensure that they can see the world around them.
And he wants to accomplish this by the year 2020.
Some 30,000 pairs of his spectacles have already been distributed in 15 countries, but to Silver that is very small beer. Within the next year the now-retired professor and his team plan to launch a trial in India which will, they hope, distribute 1 million pairs of glasses.The target, within a few years, is 100 million pairs annually. With the global need for basic sight-correction, by his own detailed research, estimated at more than half the world's population, Silver sees no reason to stop at a billion.
The glasses themselves are as interesting as the goal. Two durable plastic lenses filled with fluid, the level of which can be adjusted by a syringe at the earpiece. The wearer can decide where their vision is best, and set the level of fluid at that point. The team has found that many people are perfectly able and content to adjust their own glasses.
They’ve also found the effects to be worth the effort – literacy rates improve, detailed work is better able to be performed, and the quality of life rises.
The cost is high, but Silver is working on that as well:
Oxford University, at his instigation, has agreed to host a Centre for Vision in the Developing World, which is about to begin working on a World Bank-funded project with scientists from the US, China, Hong Kong and South Africa.
While billions of pieces of plastic isn’t an ideal thing to be putting out into the world, improved literacy, increased ability levels, and feelings of joy and hope are, and are indeed things that will raise the standard of living globally. And perhaps the choice of materials can be made more environmentally friendly while maintaining the same durability as funding increases as well. Wishful thinking, maybe, but so was getting adjustable vision glasses out to millions of people...
Via the Guardian
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So...are these one time fittings or are they adjustable throughout life ... what kind of fluid do they use
As somebody on the low income end of things, and as a glasses wearer, I know how often you have to get your glasses updated, every couple of years if your eyes are the type that get weaker over time (like mine!) I think this is an amazing thing, kudos to them for it! And don't you think this would be a great product for recycling plastic INTO? :)
I think it's actually verging on offensive to be worried about the impact of the plastic used to make these glasses.
It'd be nice if they could be made with minimal environmental impact, sure, but personally I'd prefer they could make as many as possible as cheaply as possible.
Given how much completely useless nonsense we use plastic for, it does seem a bit mean to worry about the impact of providing something basic such as vision.
I think the benefits outweight the perceived plastic overuse, moreso, the extended use of pair of glasses instead of new ones every year or so it's the selling point for me.
Green, and good.
While making the glasses may produce more plastic, the fact that they're adjustable for people whose vision changes over time will save a lot of plastic. And otherwise the people who need vision correction will either go without, or get cheap plastic glasses from a NGO which will break or be unsuitable within a year.
There must be NGOs collecting used glasses from people whose vision has changed, right?
To fund, sell pairs to Western World at 3 to 4x cost use profit to fund project.
I agree with the borderline offensive bit.
Seriously, we live in a country where we get to have all kinds of little bits of plastic that improve our lives, and you'd begrudge the world's poor enough to see clearly? Next you'll be saying the plastic in those water hippos (the rolling heavy duty barrels with handles) is too much. I mean, there's more plastic in your bike's fenders than in these glasses, and if you have metal fenders, think about the destruction to the environment caused to provide you with the metal. The comment is elitist and unnecessary. This is a far greater and more egalitarian use for the world's petroleum resources than 99.9% of what we currently use it for.
The goal should be to make them cheaper and better looking (so they will be used more). The environmental aspect is small potatoes compared to the human impact here. You use more carbon in one cross-country flight than the people these glasses are for will use in their entire lives. Cut em some slack already, and have a little sensitivity for the needs of the disadvantaged billions of the world.
Did you notice the model has eyelash mites?
amazing.