Adjustable-Focus Glasses Can Replace Bifocals

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that inventor Stephen Kurtin has developed glasses with a mechanically adjustable focus that he believes can free nearly two billion people around the world from bifocals, trifocals and progressive lenses. Kurtin has spent almost 20 years on his quest to create a better pair of spectacles for people who suffer from presbyopia — the condition that affects almost everyone over the age of 40 as they progressively lose the ability to focus on close objects. The glasses have a tiny adjustable slider on the bridge of the frame that makes it possible to focus alternately on the page of a book, a computer screen, or a mountain range in the distance. 'For more than 140 years, adjustable focus has been recognized as the Holy Grail for presbyopes,' says Kurtin. 'It's a blazingly difficult problem.' Each 'lens' is actually a set of two lenses, one flexible and one firm. The flexible lens (near the eye) has a transparent, distensible membrane attached to a clear rigid surface. The pocket between them holds a small quantity of crystal-clear fluid. As you move the slider on the bridge, it pushes the fluid and alters the shape of the flexible lens."

Comments

Issued in 1999, What's Taking Him So Long?

[eldavojohn]

But the price, the price... My presbyopia is such that I just do without spectacles for close work, and don monofocals for driving, etc. I have bifocals, but they irritate me to no end. If adaptive focus spectacles are reasonably-priced (no more than double the cost of good coated bifocals), then I'll be first in line.

Yeah, it sounds like many people would enjoy this. My question is why if this was granted in 1999 is it not in production today? Is there some FDA-like approval he needs to get? Is he having trouble finding capital? Is he unable to convince people it will work? A fabrication issue? Doesn't make sense to me.

Or (like the article says) does he just have his hands in too many fields of patents to develop one of them into a business model? I was kind of shocked to see that it was issued a decade ago and I've never heard of this until now.