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PixelOptics emPower! electronic eyeglasses hands-on
PixelOptics is demoing what it claims is the most significant development in prescription eyewear in 50 years: emPower! PixelOptics' glasses offer up better field of view and less distortion than traditional lenses by sandwiching an LCD-like layer in the glass that can be focused with an electrical charge. The set's inbuilt micro-machine accelerometer detects when you tip your head down -- when you read, for example -- and triggers the glasses' focal area for presbyopia. The emPower! lens can also be set to manual and is then activated by a swipe of your finger on the frame. The kit includes the glasses and the inductive charger that will keep the eyewear powered up and running for a couple days. We were able to get some video of the lens in action focusing on a tie -- it is impressive to say the least -- the change happens as quickly as your eye blinks and is not noticeable when not activated. We'd say PixelOptics is on to something here, and if you're the type to plonk down $1,200 for a pair of glasses, these are definitely worth a peek. The only thing missing is a micro speaker that blasts out Bionic Man sounds each time you fire them up -- but we've great hope somebody will hack that in. %Gallery-113430%
LCD glasses might replace bifocals
Given the amount of time we spend in front of various screens over the course of the day (and night), it's not surprising that we're a little worried about our vision. But we're also vain enough that the idea of wearing ultra-thick coke-bottle glasses, or even dual-core bifocals, has us a little worried. So, we're ready to volunteer to test the LCD glasses being developed by researchers at the University of Arizona. The specs use electrodes that can alter the configuration of the LCDs, automatically refocusing based on what the wearer is looking at. There are, however, a couple of downsides. Other researchers scoff that the lenses would end up being too heavy and thick (and the prototype pictured here does look kind of goofy). The other downside: if the batteries give out, you're left with plain glass. We wouldn't want to be caught in that position while we're, say, in the middle of passing a tractor-trailer on a rain-slicked highway in the middle of the night. Maybe we'll stick with the coke-bottle lenses for a while, and wait for the white-suits to get the bugs out of this one first.
