Pick Your Prescription: Revolutionary Adjustable Glasses

Getting vision correction to people in developing nations is a challenge not only because glasses are expensive, but because getting to an optometrist is not always possible. Designers have come up with all sorts of elegant solutions to get glasses to people who need them but don’t have access through traditional channels. Eyejusters is a pretty inventive, if slightly funny-looking, way to get vision correction without an optometrist.

The method works in kind of the same way as that big lens thing the optometrist puts in front of your face and asks “Better 1, or 2?” Basically, there are two special lenses on each side of the glasses that slide across each other as you twist the adjustment knobs. You stop twisting when the focal range looks correct to you.

The glasses aren’t super-stylish, but for people who don’t normally have access to glasses they could be life-changing. They’re available even if you don’t live in a developing country; Eyejusters Self-Adjustable Readers are reading glasses that let you pick the prescription and adjust it for different activities.

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See more in Do It Yourself or under Technology. June, 2012.