By: Antonio Chirumbolo SUNY 2013
October 4th 2011 – In developing countries, where people do not have access to eye care professionals nor the economic luxury to afford glasses from optical stores; there is a new hope. Dr. Joshua Silver has been tinkering with liquid formed lenses since the 1980’s. Originally, Silver was modifying the power of liquid formed lenses by controlling levers that added or drained liquid. As liquid was added or drained, the power of the lens was made stronger or weaker.
Silver has used this idea to develop adjustable eyeglasses. Each eyeglass lens is filled with silicone fluid with an attaching dial on each arm. The wearer can twist the dials until the vision is deemed acceptable, and then the dials can be removed from the glasses for cosmetic purposes.
Unfortunately, the glasses do not correct for astigmatism, but to many people world wide, correcting for spherical refractive error can make a tremendous difference in their quality of life.
Dr. Silver will continue developing and perfecting the glasses with the ultimate objective of lowering costs and improving design.
