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.)
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
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 Even a slightly outdated prescription works in a pinch.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
Good point. Maybe these are a “home or office use only” device.
I would looove to have something like this for work or home.
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.
My GUESS would be that you get a prescription for whatever your vision requires as a baseline, then the auto focus kicks in for reading.
The intention is to replace bifocals or progressives, so you’d still have your primary prescription + adjustment for reading.
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.
That was my take, and I hope we’re both right. I’d kill for glasses that auto-focus as readers. I wear contacts most of the time when outside, so maybe not such a savior for me.
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.
Because they are a medical device and there are negative medical repercussions to using glasses that don’t conform to your needed prescription.
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.
My neighbor just bought a pair off of tv, theyre a scam, just +25 reading glasses…
Yeah, my wife got me something that claimed to auto focus. Was just a pair of progressive readers.
IXI isn’t selling their glasses yet. Your neighbor did not buy what the article is talking about.