Posted on 08/03/2009 11:20:16 PM PDT by neverdem
LOS ANGELES — As a promising Caltech graduate student in applied physics, Stephen Kurtin could have taken a job offer from Intel at the dawn of the microelectronics era 40 years ago.
Instead he followed the path of a lone inventor, gaining more than 30 patents in fields including word processing software and sound systems, culminating in the pair of glasses resting on his nose, which he believes can free nearly two billion people around the world from bifocals, trifocals and progressive lenses.
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.
Dr. Kurtin, 64, has spent almost 20 years of his career on a 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.
After many false turns and dead ends, he has succeeded in creating glasses with a mechanically adjustable focus. He says they are better than other glasses and some forms of Lasik surgery. And they make an intriguing fashion statement: a bit of Harry Potter with a dash of “Revenge of the Nerds.”
Dr. Kurtin did his graduate student research in applied physics for Carver A. Mead, an industry pioneer and a physicist. Later, a series of his innovations in software technology led to the Lexitron Videotype, the first stand-alone, paper-quality Wysiwyg word processor. And he created an early version of a surround sound system for Advent, a maker of speakers...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Neat!
Findings May Explain Gap in Cancer Survival
Allergy meds slim down obese mice some more immunology
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
I hope they work better than these. I waisted some hard earned money on this promising ad.
http://www.blamepro.com/how/how4.htm
Thanks for the link.
ever try Irlen lenses? i’m not saying it’s a help for prysobia
bookmark
Marked for later
I’d love it!
I was thinking that these glasses only work on flies.
I get my glasses at the Dollar Tree, when will they get there?
“My glasses, I’m helpless without them!”
The bridge doesn’t look very comfortable but I would LOVE to try them. I’m getting tired of taking my glasses off to read, send a SMS on my cell phone, etc.
Sounds pretty cool. I’m guessing expensive.
I just started having trouble reading with my glasses on. I’m 46.
Is possible to simply go back to wearing contacts, then put on reading glasses, as I may need them to read the fine print? My siblings all use reading glasses.
no kidding! particularly when i’m driving! (see text summit while driving
for more info.)
$895....which for brand new technology, isn't all that bad.
I think CD players were $2,000 in the late '70s.
A good pair of trifocals (my elderly Dad has them) is over $400. And of course Lasik is still thousands.
I'm 48, (yep, 2 months older than Obama) and I'm just now wearing low power reading glasses.
There's a nice super lightweight brand of reading glasses, Calabria, made with special unbreakable nylon frames of a material called TR-90 Grilamid, which are terrific...don't even know they are there really.
It looks goofy, but that’s because it was designed by an engineer/inventor type. You can bet before long they’ll have something stylish or at least more so than these Harry Potter glasses.
I’d love to have adjustable focal distance. I really could use it in my work.
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