Spectacles prototype can auto-correct

A research team from the University of Utah has developed smart glasses that can automatically adjust their focus depending on where the user directs their gaze.Electrical and computer engineering professor Carlos Mastrangelo and doctoral student Mr Nazmul Hasan invented the smart glasses by utilising liquid-based adaptive lenses and colourless glycerin. The thick glycerin is enclosed by flexible transparent mbranes at the front and back.{{quote-A:R-W:450-I:2-Q:“Most people who get reading glasses have to put th on and take th off all the time. You don’t have to do that anymore. -WHO:Carlos Mastrangelo, Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor}}The rear mbrane of each lens is attached to a series of mechanical actuators that move the mbranes like a piston, changing the curvature of the liquid lens and therefore the focal length between the lens and the eyes.“Most people who get reading glasses have to put th on and take th off all the time. You don’t have to do that anymore. You put these on, and it’s always clear,” Mastrangelo said.The lenses are secured in a frame that contains the power supply and processing unit that controls the actuators. On the bridge of the frame is a meter that measures the distance from the glasses to an object using infrared light pulses.Before wearing the spectacles, the user puts their eyeglass prescription values into a smartphone app specially developed for the glasses. The app then connects to the glasses’ processing unit via Bluetooth and calibrates measurents for the wearer.The meter measures the distance of the object the wearer is looking at and directs the processing unit to move the actuators to adjust the lenses. Then, when the user shits their gaze to another object, the meter recalculates and corrects the focus.Hasan said that the lenses could change focus on objects within 14 milliseconds, while a rechargeable battery that lasts up to around 24 hours on a single charge powers the spectacles.A startup company called Sharpeye has been established for commercial production, and while the current prototype is still cumbersome to wear due to the components, Mastrangelo expects in three years’ time a sleeker version will be developed for commercial use.