Sunglasses That Block All the Screens Around You (wired.com)

Scott Blew, an entrepreneur and engineer, recalled an article he'd recently read in WIRED about a new kind of film that blocked the light emitted from screens. He wondered if the same technology might work on a pair of glasses, to block the screens that seemed to be everywhere. From a report: He contacted Steelcase, the company that made the Casper screen-blocking film, and ordered a sample. Then he popped out the lenses in a pair of cheap sunglasses and replaced them with the film. Amazingly, it worked: Blew could look through the lenses and see everything -- except for screens, which turned black. Now, Blew and a small team are turning that concept into a real product. Their IRL Glasses, which launched on Kickstarter this week, block the wavelengths of light that comes from LED and LCD screens. Put them on and the TV in the sports bar seems to switch off; billboards blinking ahead seem to go blank. Within three days of launch, the project had surpassed its funding goal of $25,000.

Comments

And what about LED traffic lights?

[ravenshrike]

Should be amusing the first time they get sued because of a car accident.

Re:Wavelength

[religionofpeas]

most modern screens emit light only at 3 specific frequencies

Only OLEDs do that (and they don't work with these glasses).

Normal TFT LCD screens use white backlight and 3 different colored filters. The filters are fairly wide band (easier to make and also better for increased brightness). The white backlight spectrum differs based on the light source. Older screens used fluorescent CCFL bulbs with fairly narrow spectral lines, but they had quite many, and the position depends on the phosphor mixture. Newer screens use white LEDs (typically blue/UV LED + yellow phosphor) with wide spectrum.

Re:Doesn't work on portrait screens

[TeknoHog]

Regular polarizing sunglasses should work for those. Presumably, the polarization direction in most LCDs is chosen so that they remain visible with polarizing sunglasses (whose direction, in turn, is chosen to reduce reflections from horizontal surfaces).