While tech ginats have been pushing VR headsets and smartglasses, IXI has been quietly crafting high-tech specs for more practical purposes.
As a guy closing in on 50, losing my near vision really annoys me. And the current solutions are weak at best, which annoys me even more. These and the other companies working on similar sound great.
But someone tell me why I would need a prescription for them? And is that true in the EU? The article makes it sound like getting them approved to be prescribed is a big hurdle. They seem like better reading glasses, which I don't need a prescription to buy.
"Prescription glasses" only mean "glasses with optical properties", so glasses that actually do anything with focus, as opposed to e.g. non-prescription sunglasses or non-prescription accessory glasses that people wear to look smart or something.
It doesn't mean you need a prescription for them.
(That said: in some countries you need a prescription for your prescription glasses if you want your health insurance to pay for them.)
This is INSANE, my entire household could make imense use of theese with our shitty eyesight! I don't cary about any reviews because anything like this will be 1000x better than existing bifocals, I will be preordering 3 pairs of theese as soon as possible. I just hope they don't patent the shit out of them so there will be competitors and the prices won't be astronomical.
Armed with fresh funding, IXI is now planning to ramp up R&D, expand its team of 50 people, and move into a new headquarters with a purpose-built lab and clean room facilities. The company plans to hold the first live demos of its glasses later this year.
oh damn, I've never seen one in person, but I don't really care about judgment by others, so if I could get some prescription lenses on those, that'd be ideal.
eventually they'll come out with a device that charges you while you wear all of your rechargeable items. you just plug yourself into a USB outlet and all your shit gets charged simultaneously
I don't think I want it to be possible for someone's glasses to die or freeze
People do dangerous things that are made safer by the fact they can see—like driving
Edit: you'll need a prescription because the amount of focus it needs to do will be different for everyone and there isn't a sensor to determine your eyesight
Well, I have tried multiple sets of reading glasses at different magnification. They all work fine. So I don't think it needs to be that exact to match the person. And I would think some sort of calibration, either by manual means or plugging them into a smartphone and using an app should cover that. I doubt it corrects for things like astigmatism that are more complex.
I’d just keep a spare pair of normal glasses in the car. Anyone that has gotten to the point of needed glasses for both distance and reading likely has old pairs of glasses that can sit in a glove box. Even a slightly outdated prescription works in a pinch.
Bifocals and or swapping between distance and readers is a fucking pain. Something that solves that automatically, without a medical procedure, would be fucking amazing.
I think I'm more concerned about the unfortunate scenarios where:
Glasses fuck up meaning driver can only see near -> something that needs quick reactions happens to avoid someone dying -> driver is fumbling with glasses or trying to find a spare pair -> somebody dies
Sounds great. I’m in my 40s with myopia, astigmatism, and more recently, presbyopia.
Progressive lenses don’t work for me, and needing two pairs of glasses is not ideal, even if it mostly works. Plus I can’t even just buy reading glasses off the shelf, even my short range office lenses need a prescription and are expensive as hell.
Autofocusing lenses sound like an awesome alternative.
I hope you are right. But I don’t have a perscription. So I would need clear by default, and only autofocusing for reading. I shouldn't need a script for that.
I can go buy readers when I don't need them. I've been told that using a higher power than you need is bad for you as well. And you can buy glasses online with no script. So I don't think that reason would be valid.
Interesting concept, here’s hoping. They could definitely take a bite out of the progressive market, especially for people who buy a pair of dedicated reading glasses. Comes down to how much lenses cost, how much/many options the frames come with… I suspect this will be a super niche thing, but on board for it
And prescriptions for glasses in general bug me. The only argument for requiring them and having them expire I have heard is that the wrong perscription could be dangerous while driving and such. But heck, we don't make you retake the drivers test every 2 years, and people's driving skills certainly decrease with age. So why prescriptions? Seems like another one of those good for business and not for people laws.
How do prescriptions for glasses even work on your side of the pond? I assumed it was just jargon of a sort, because round these parts I just go to a glasses seller and ask him for his strongest glasses. Then he says "no traveller, my strongest glasses are too strong for you, you can't handle my strongest glasses" and does the eye test with me before making lenses at the proper strength.