{"id":271447,"date":"2010-02-03T13:40:33","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T18:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"Gizmodo-5463368"},"modified":"2010-02-03T13:40:33","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T18:40:33","slug":"how-oil-filled-lenses-are-bringing-sight-to-those-in-need-adspecs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/271447","title":{"rendered":"How Oil-Filled Lenses are Bringing Sight to Those in Need [Adspecs]"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>This isn’t a review. It’s not even breaking news. It’s just a reminder that someone somewhere is doing something awesome.<\/p>\n

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I’ve been fascinated by the “Adspecs” since I first heard of them a few years ago. The glasses have oil-filled lenses which, when adjusted with the attached syringes, allow anyone to dial in their own prescription just by looking at a chart. (I’ve tried to show how the lens work in the video above.)<\/p>\n

This story originally started with a question: Hey, did that project ever actually get off the ground?<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m happy to report that it has—to the tune of 30,000 pairs of Adspecs already in the field around the world<\/a>, distributed through a variety of aid organizations.<\/p>\n

For the last few weeks, I’ve been speaking to the Centre for Vision in the Develop World’s Owen Reading about where the project is going. It doesn’t hurt he’s a Gizmodo<\/em> reader. (Hi, Owen!) He explained why the Adspecs are such a good solution for developing economies.<\/p>\n

“They require very little training to dispense, can be dispensed by an organisation’s volunteers in the field, they only need to be delivered once and can make a difference for years afterwards, and are inherently safer (and less valuable on the black market) than items such as prescription medications.”<\/p>\n

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The Adspecs aren’t perfect. The sample pair I was given were an older design with a cranky hinge. It popped right apart when I put them on my huge head. It’s nothing a little superglue can’t fix, but thankfully a stronger design is already being distributed in the field. Adspecs are undergoing constant iterative improvement.<\/p>\n

One of those improvements is price: The current version of the Adspecs still cost nearly $20 a pop to produce—a bargain considering they come with a self-administered eye exam built right in, but not as close to the $1-a-pair goal set by the project’s founder and director, Josh Silver.<\/p>\n

It’s the sort of mixture of charity and innovation that makes my heart leap, an opportunity to use the mass production and design capabilities of the developed world to provide a life-changing solution to those who need it—without making those who receive aid dependent on someone else for continued support.<\/p>\n

This won’t be the last you’ll see of the Adspecs here on Gizmodo<\/em>, especially if you’ve got a notion to donate<\/a> to the project or their distribution partners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among all the widgets-of-the-day, the tablets and phones and mail-order furniture, it’s easy to forget how technology can make such a profound difference in people’s lives. So let’s not forget.<\/p>\n

Background music by a band I suspect most of you will really enjoy, The Depreciation Guild<\/a>, a Brooklyn-based band that combine an NES with really lovely shoegaze guitar. In fact, here’s their latest single embedded below.<\/em><\/p>\n

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This isn’t a review. It’s not even breaking news. It’s just a reminder that someone somewhere is doing something awesome. I’ve been fascinated by the “Adspecs” since I first heard of them a few years ago. The glasses have oil-filled lenses which, when adjusted with the attached syringes, allow anyone to dial in their own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1986,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1986"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}