A Briton has designed spectacles which can be adjusted by the wearer without the need for an optician, in an invention which may help the world's poor

Inventor designs 'tunable' glasses to help one billion in Third World see
article in the Telegraph

Extracts:

"Prof Joshua Silver hopes his design will enable a billion people in the developing world to receive spectacles for the first time within just over a decade. "

"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 liquid in the centre of each lens.

They come with small syringes attached to each arm with a dial for the wearer to add or remove fluid from the lens.

Once the lenses have been adjusted, the syringes are removed and the spectacles worn just like a prescription pair.

The invention will enable millions of people in poorer parts of the world, where opticians are in short supply, to get spectacles for the first time.

A trial project, supported by the Department for International Development, has already seen thousands of pairs distributed in Third World countries.

He is now preparing to launch an ambitious scheme in India to distribute one million pairs in a year."

What a wonderful idea!