Sexiest Geeks Alive

I love inventions. Over my life span, I’ve invented some pretty silly objects:

• Spatulas with special holes to avoid breaking yolks while frying eggs
• Desks with hidden compartments and elaborate pneumatic tubes (yes, I’m obsessed with those too)
• Pot scrubbing gloves, which would have turned out to be my best product if I had thought of a better application of the idea: shower gloves for exfoliation. Duh. I was too young to think about these things. I just thought of dishes and how much I loathed doing them. I did win an invention award for them though.

Anyhow, the point is, I’ve never invented a physical thing that is world changing. I hope to invent business models that are, so there’s still hope for that dream, but I’ve given up (for now) on the injection molded wonders of the world.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to try on a pair of glasses that could change the lives of millions of people in poorer countries. I searched the Internet for a few hours trying different search terms and finally found the winning combination: adaptive glasses

They have lenses that contain liquid that you can inject or extract from tubes attached to the sides to change the curvature of the lens. As you can see from the pictures below, they are quite unattractive, however if you can suddenly see for the first time in your life, I’m guessing you won’t complain or care what they look like.

Here’s a great article in NYTimes from 2002. These glasses appear to be old news, as they were invented around 1996 - maybe even sooner, because that date only indicates when the inventor Joshua Silver founded the company Adaptive Eyecare.

These glasses don’t help with things like astigmatism, however they would provide vision for millions. Once people are able to see, they can read and that leads to more education and more jobs, which could eventually lead them down the path to more wealth. The glasses are very inexpensive and can be purchased with a micro-loan or with money saved and you are in business. No need for an optician. This was the major flaw in used glasses, self grinders and other adjustable glasses. All you need is an eye chart and some strong fingers to adjust the dials. It took some strength for me to get the dials turning.

Oh, btw, the crazy tubes on the side detach once you have the glasses set to your vision, so you don’t have the crazy Mad Max look going on.

Besides the obvious good these glasses can do, one must think of the commercial applications that are quite interesting. Ski goggles, military helmets, welding gear, etc. I’ve needed to wear protective eye wear over my glasses when working with molten glass and welding and I would have been a lot happier if I just had one pair.

Anyhow, quite cool and even though the glasses aren’t sexy, the invention definitely is.