Slashdot Mirror
Smart Sunglasses
"Many readers have submitted this story of chemists at the University of Washington who have made glasses with lenses that can be transparent or dark, in shades of yellow, green, or purple, all at the push of a button. The glasses will let the wearer instantly change the color of their lenses to virtually any hue by tuning a tiny electronic knob in the frame."
So yet another reason for assholes to "wear their sunglasses at night" and be distracted about whilst they drive. Great. Just great. You're only encouraging them, them you know.
Really, then at least the average Iraqi citizens would be able to see their eyes most of the time.
Please, can somebody talk to those troops? Wearing mirrored or black lenses, well that might make you feel the big man and hard, or pure 'leet, like you're in the Matrix or James Bond or something, but there's way too many psychology studies which show that this *alienates* people. Yes, you are right, it does make you look evil and frightening. Which might be good when you're back home trying to impress your buddies but if you're dealing with a bunch of frightened locals who are trying to work out if you're the good guys and they should support you, or you're a bunch of evil imperialist foreigners (etc etc..) , well, you're not doing yourself any favours by covering your eyes. It's basic human psychology, we look into each others eyes and if we can't see another person's eyes we're disconcerted, assume they are hiding something. Going to be some wavering teenage boys out there who are going to get shouted at by US cyberwarriors with black/mirrored lenses and end up thinking "feck em! evil foreigners! I think I will sign up to kick em out of my country, help out the local militias". For goodness sakes, if folk need sunglasses, issue them with yellow lens, or some sort of colour that means people can at least see their eyes...