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Cheap Fast Eyeglasses from a Desktop Fabricator

Posted by michael on from the blind-as-a-bat dept.

purduephotog writes "Doctoral candidate Saul Griffith of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and inventor of the Lego powered chocolate printer was awarded the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for inventing a device that molds eyeglasses rapidly and cheaply. Best of all, he's motivated for the good of humanity."

7 of 279 comments (clear)

  1. I predict... by Pirogoeth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hmm, a device that can automatically figure out your prescription, and another that can make cheap eyeglasses?

    I see these popping up all over the place, like the "check your blood pressure here" devices.

    If it means that more people who can't afford vision correction can get glasses, whether in a poor country or not, I'm all for it.

    --
    Happiness is like peeing yourself. Everybody can see it but only you can feel its warmth.
  2. Automatic vision testers! hooray! by badmonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I could have sworn one optometrist i went to a few years ago had a machine that automatcially brought an image into focus for me. Way cooler than this stone-age notion of looking at the eye chart as the "doctor" flips lenses. Which one is clearer, one or two. Why do we keep doing this stone age crap?

    I'm all for automatic vision testing, I feel like my current prescription was issued by a talentless hack.

    Automatically testing vision and cranking out lenses is sweet. Next they just need to fire on an AR coating and everyone is good to go.

  3. Like the idea of the eye test goggles by Sporkinum · · Score: 5, Interesting
    To resolve this problem, Griffith has created a prototype device to test the human eye. Patients need only wear the device, which looks like an oversized pair of goggles, and look at the world around them. An electronic sensor superimposed on the goggles monitors the lens in the wearer's eye and adjusts the device's lens to cancel the refractive errors, thus determining the correct prescription.


    This sounded like even cooler tech to me. I like the idea of something that takes away the subjectivness of the traditional exam for a prescription. He could even throw a glaucoma tester into the goggles.
    --
    "He's lost in a 'floyd hole"
    1. Re:Like the idea of the eye test goggles by jstave · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, if these goggles could be made small and light enough, it sounds like they could *be* the glasses -- kind of an autofocus for your face. No more bi/trifocals!

  4. Implications beyond eyeglasses by Eagle5596 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm interested in the uses of this machine behind eyeglasses. I've been working on several projects where we are creating instrumentation, and have been surprised to find that optics are both difficult to find in specific diameters and focal lengths, and rather expensive when you do find the optics you need.

    While not a big deal to major corporations who don't balk at shelling out $20 a lens for custom work, for academic projects and independant research, that is a significant chunk of the cost of our prototype, considering the ease and realtive low cost involved in obtaining a microcontroller these days.

    I imagine that, since he can make eye glasses, producing DCX, PCX, DCV, and PCV lenses would be easy too. I'd love to see this kind of machine available at academic institutions for producing parts for research.

  5. Companion Program for eyeware perscriptions by Simonetta · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have wondered if it were possible to make a program that could help determine the shape of the corrective lens needed for a vision defect.

    Since with high resolution monitors and 256 (or more)levels of gray available, it should be possible to create an 'eye chart' that looks bleary and out-of-focus to a normally-sighted person but sharp and clearly-focused to someone with deformed vision.

    I imagine a program where the user can adjust the software implementations (precise changes on the screen regards to the blurring of the chart characters that mimic the effect of an individual lens) of the various corrective lens stages of an eye exam. When the user is seeing clear and focused characters on the eye chart, the program would know from the distortions of the normal chart needed to create this clarity exactly what the eyeware prescription would need to be for this individual user.

    The user could send the eyeglass perscription to a off-shore eyeware maker and get perscription glasses made at a tiny fraction of inflated American prices. Or order the glasses made by the method developed by the subject of this article.

    1. Re:Companion Program for eyeware perscriptions by R_Harrold · · Score: 5, Interesting

      A device similar to this already exists Last time I went in to a new optometrist they had a gadget which they had me look into which 'automaticaly' determined my prescription by (I Assume) measuring the distortion experienced by a low power laser shined into my eye. The result was fairly close to my actual prescription and would be quite close enough especially if you didn't have ready access to the miscellaneous additional gadgets required to really fine-tune a prescription. Another note is this, I'll use a nearsighted person with astigmatism for this example, The variables for each eye are: Spherical Abberation: Negative number measured in .25 increments ranging from 0 (no correction) to -8 or more (lots of correction) Astigmatism: Abberation measures in .25 increments ranging from 0 to the amount of spherical correction. Axis: The axis along which the Astigmatism occurs (I don't know what the increment for this is, This one has been constant for me for the past 20 years so I haven't seen much in the way of samples... I do know that 70 degrees and 110 degrees are valid values) Note that I am not an Optometrist, so someone who is more aware should feel free to correct me, but If I make the following assumptions we end up with quite a large problem to be placed on a chart: Spherical: 0 to -8.5 -- 34 possible Astigmatism: 0 to Spherical -- 0 to 34 possible Axis: 0 to 180 degrees in 10 degree steps -- 18 possible lots of combinations spring to mind, I'd say go with the existing automated machines. Possibly combine the marketing for the automated lens fabrication with a program to encourage optometrists to donate their older 'automated prescription baseline devices (or whatever they are officially called'.