Make your own spectacles

Inventor designs 'tunable' glasses to help one billion in Third World see
The need: The U.K Guardian reports that there is one optometrist for every 4,500 people in Britain, while in sub-Saharan Africa the ratio is 1:1,000,000.
The Innovator: Joshua Silver who was a professor at Oxford University,
The innovation: His adaptive glasses are designed to be "tuned" by the wearer to suit their eyes without the need for a prescription and can help both short-sighted and long-sighted people. Working on the principle that thicker lenses are more powerful than thin ones, Prof Silver's spectacles can be adjusted by injecting tiny quantities of fluid. The tough plastic glasses have thin sacs of silicone liquid in the centre of each lens. They come with small syringes attached to each arm with a dial for the wearer to adjust the amount of light-bending silicon until they can see clearly. Once the lenses have been adjusted, the syringes are removed and the spectacles worn just like a prescription pair. They are similar to wearing double paned windows with a gel in between. The current price is a pretty cheap $19.

The journey: He set on the idea of developing an adjustable spectacle after a chance conversation in 1985 when he and a colleague were discussing optical lenses. It took more than 20 years to finally come up a design which can be made cheaply on a large scale. Today, his invention is being worn in more than 10 countries, including African villages. Soon, the poor of India also will be sporting Silver’s spectacles.
Along his journey to delivering a viable product, Silver won a Popular Science Best of What’s New Award in 2000. His AdSpecs were featured again in the magazine’s March 2009 issue. He has steadfastly followed an arduous journey, and refuses to sell his idea for monetary gain. No IPO in this man’s future, although he said he has been offered millions for his design. He is afraid that another company wouldn’t make the world’s poor their priority. So, he looks for philanthropists who are interested in ministering to the disadvantaged. He was recently joined by an Indian businessman, and together they plan to provide one million pairs of glasses in India.

The Future: Professionals devoted to eyesight problems are few and far between in developing countries. Silver hopes to deliver self-adjusting eyeglasses to 1,000,000 underserved Indian people.
Money is a factor, of course. Silver is aiming to distribute 100 million pairs each year. Getting the production costs down to a dollar a pair is more than a challenge, even in lots of a million at a time. Oxford University has agreed to host a Centre for Vision in the Developing World, with plans to work on a World Bank-funded project. Hopefully, that will attract more funds for Silver’s humanitarian cause.

You tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4OiRjv81BY
Here’s a link to the story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3899781/Inventor-designs-tunable-glasses-to-help-one-billion-in-Third-World-see.html