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."
This is why they call them "Smart" sunglasses - it's relative to their wearers.
i frequently use polarized glasses to examine lcd screens for defects; it would be nice to change the angle of polarization without having to tilt my head at odd angles. also, when i change the angle, i can see through many different reflections.
And that's all I got today.
Peril sensitive? Zaphod needs 2 pairs.
What is this, 60's Star Trek? I want it to respond to my thoughts or at least memorize my preferences somehow. Buttons and Knobs. Really.
Button-pushing is for weenies. Glasses that go black all by themselves at the first sign of danger--that's where it's at!
Only yellow, green, or purple? No rose colored glasses?
I wouldn't have been able to resist the temptation to add it, myself... assuming it was possible.
I would buy these in an instant! I commute on a motorcycle and often times I leave in the morning. Unless it's cloudy i have to put on my sunglasses before the sun is even up. Then I ride north with darkened vision. But I have no choice because later I have to ride into the sun as it's rising. Impossible to safely do without the shades. Wearing a helmet, even with a flip up face-mask, it takes too long (and again, is unsafe) to fumble with putting on shades while on the bike. With these, I could easily turn a knob while at a traffic light. I just hope they put the knob where I can get to with with the helmet on, and while wearing gloves. Hell if they just made helmet visors that'd be even better!
If you can they might compete with psychedelic drugs.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
But I'd rather have contact lens that change colors everytime I blink. It'd look really cool, but it'd probably be real distracting to people and retnal scans.
Demented But Determined.
There we go, on top.
With glasses like those, you can be the hit of every nerd party, I can hardly wait.
No. Wait till your drawers magically change color and post a dupe.
Under the influence of Post-Cyberpunk Gonzo Journalism
These will be great for when I'm driving my flying car.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I don't want to have to turn a tiny electronic knob. I don't even know what makes some knobs electronic, rather than the old kind of knob. What I want are sunglasses smart enough to turn their own knobs and automatically adjust the the ambient light conditions properly. Now those would be smart!
And if a Vorlon comes along, just turn black.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Aren't there yellow glasses for people with bad night vision that reduce glare? They're _supposed_ to be worn at night for safety reasons and I think from TFA, these glasses also go yellow. If the shade of yellow is right, people could use the same pair for day and night driving, which is pretty cool.
By the way, people who drive with sunglasses at night are not assholes, they are dickheads. There's a subtle distinction.
I don't therefore I'm not.
The only truly smart sunglasses will be able to skitter off of my seat before I sit down on them. That, and when to fold in poker.
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
Those worked very nice for Ultraviolet. Now all we need is mood-sensitive clothes and hair. And katanas!!! Oh, wait, I already have mood-sensitive hair.
Personally, I'll wait for the Elite edition, with x-ray and stuff.
I want mirrored contacts. When somebody takes a flash photo of me it'll look like my head is exploding. Don't ask why I want that, I just... do.
I've got red-green colorblindness (green traffic lights look white, reds look darker than other colors, brown looks like both green and red, etc.). Will this help people like me in any way?
Really cool glasses do it without being told. Like mine have for the last 40 years.
Only one colour , true, but "look ma , no hands".
well? are we pushing a button or turning a knob? Make up your mind, people!
being vague is almost as cool as doing that other thing...
now let's implement mood ring technology into these glasses so me and people around me know what mood I am in.
Too many zeros, not enough ones
Berkeley did similar work back in the 70-ies. Letting people see all kinds of colors. While hacking BSD.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
With inventions like this, does anyone wonder why the world is dying of pollution? Do we really need electricity running our sunglasses, simply for the dubious pleasure of changing the color a few times before getting bored with it?
ResidntGeek
How about glasses that read your focal reflective attempts and compensates with a programmatically deformed lense? Much more usefull and maybe more commercial, targeting all the geezers out there.
Dial in variable density, and variable reaction time. Goes from shade 2 to shade 15 in microseconds, as soon as it senses the arc. You can find chinese knockoffs at Harbor Freight for 50 bucks.
Sunglasses that change darkness? Yawn. So what? they'll just make the cost prohibitively expensive, making the invention pretty useless as an everyday thing.
What we *REALLY* need is a pair of glasses that change shade, color, a heads-up-display, bluetooth, defog, AND have a neat-o pair of windshield wipers built in. THEN I'll shovel out the cash.
A big fake rubber nose and fake bushy eyebrows would be a bonus!
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
The video just shows them changing from blue to clear...just like any old...that was a lame episode of lost...calculator. I hope it's cooler.
Google can be your friend... a quick search revealed this:
a ct-Lenses/product.htm
http://www.eyesbright.com/productid/Mirrored-Cont
Ramen
And if they'd read the info at the UW website they'd see that she's in the Mechanical Engineering Dept. not Chemistry. Still, she is doing stuff with chemistry so I guess "chemist" isn't totally wrong.
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Sublet? Is that you?
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Aren't there yellow glasses for people with bad night vision that reduce glare?
Yup. I've got a pair of those. AFAIK my night vision is okay, but headlight glare annoys me; driving with these glasses is a lot less tiring. I also use them during dusk/dawn and in bad weather: they decrease contrast, making dark areas more visible.
W00t, we have sunglasses that _can_ turn dark in case of extreme danger.
Earth is a beta site.
Total Recall: Secretary in the fantasy implant place is playing with her nails - changing the colour of them with the touch of a wand. I've ALWAYS wanted to be able to do that (who wants to mess about with messy nail polish?).
Wonder if this could be ported to the manicare sector?
- Lnr
Electrochromics have been figured out for a long time. You can already buy rear view mirrors for cars and a motorcycle helmet with an electrochromic visor has been around since 2003. Nothing to see here.
How are these smart if you have to select the option manually? Not that it's a bad thing.
Smart sunglasses would be like transition lens, which adjust automatically to the amount of UV.
Once they introduce a version that can be added as a coating to regular glasses, that is. It's got to be better than using clip-ons.
I can see the headlines in the future
Car crashed, police reports says that the driver had a red opaque pair of glasses, knob on glasss found to be defective. The person wanted to be cool while driving, it got even colder when he was not able to see where he was driving, you can say he only saw red.
Oh OH
Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do. - Jean-Paul Sartre
...designed for adventurers. The lenses turn blue when orcs are near.
sudo eat my shorts
You should try wearing a larger pair of horizontally polarized sunglasses on top of a normal pair of vertically polarized sunglasses.
CMDRTACO, COWBOYNEAL CRUSHED BY 18-WHEELER
Please stop stalking me, bro.
Interesting. I ride motorcycles and always wear a full-face helmet. One of the problems I have is that in the morning, the sunlight can be incredibly bright, so I like to wear a reflective shield, which acts like sunglasses. The problem, of course, is that in the evening, it makes it difficult to see (it's almost impossible to ride with a reflective shield at night). This is also true at high noon on country roads where the trees create shadows on the road. I'll have to check into a shield with a yellow tint.
By the way, I wear ski goggles with a yellow tint and everything looks really weird when I take them off after having them on all day!
My lame blog.
Here's a ad for Transitions. In the future, everyone will walk around looking smug.
-- Boycott Shell
Did no one here see the 2004 movie National Treasure.... Benjamin Franklin invented these multi colored glasses centuries ago. see image here
In other news... inattentive driver accidents are on the rise. In one such incidient the subject was found to be adjusting their glasses to the appropriate level of bling while speeding through an intersection.
This would be a fantastic technology for snowboarding goggles, where you often need to swap goggles for different lighting conditions. I hate having to swap the lenses in my goggles between day/night riding, or having my sunshine lenses on on the sunny side of the mountain and then going into the glades or backside and wishing I had a tinted lens to help me see better.
-JoeBoy
wouldn't they tell you what color they should be?
This is cool...it's like James Bond meets the peak of nerdity!
Bah, only 1-1 pixel resolution, I'll wait until higher resolutions become available. Also, only a one/two second refresh rate? Who are they kidding? Dial knob? Don't they know that small push buttons are all the hype at the moment?
It seems like it would be infinitely simpler to have a small remote control dongle that you could put in your pocket or on your keychain.
Someone mentioned the idea of using these while riding his motorcycle. With such a remote, you could switch the color without having to actually touch them. This would also work well for soldiers, doctors, machinists(assuming they make safety glasses like this(welding?)) and anyone else who normally has their hands occupied. A small remote on the side of your belt or gun is a lot easier than reaching up to your helmet for a miniture knob(or when you have gloves on).
The antenna easily could be built into the earpiece and keyed to a specific remote(of course the manual knob would still work as a backup)
Your supposed to stop and then put on or take off your sunglasses.
You are risking the lives of others because your too fucking lazy.
And people on motorcycles complain about other people. shit.
OTOH, I look forward to reading about you at the Darwin awards.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I didn't RTFA, but will i be able to plug my digital music player into these and have the colors change to the beat?
-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+ *** http://www.mountainfort.com *** +-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-=-+-
I cant wait to get one of these remove the variable resistor for the colour change and replace it will a mood sensor, that way when I'm happy or sad the cloour changes, right now, I'm thinking stressed will be bright red.
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
I know some people who have glasses with a coating that reacts to the amount of light. Even indoors, those glasses are always slightly tinted (maybe 10%). You probably get used to that, but it seems to me that sometimes that 10% is too much. This electrochromatic coating better be completely transparent.
Oh, and what about failure modes? If the battery dies, will the glasses go dark or transparent?