Water Power in Developing World to Cure Poor Eyesight

An Oxford University physics professor Dr. J D Silver has developed water filled glasses that have a variable optical strength thanks to a small pump dial. The idea is that the services of an optician would not be needed since “the wearer can adjust the power of each lens to his or her own requirements.”
From the technology page at Adaptive Eyecare, the manufacturer of the device:

The approach of Adaptive Eyecare has been to develop a completely new ophthalmic lens technology which permits us to manufacture revolutionary new spectacles which are universal, in the sense that one pair may be used to correct the vision of over 90% of people requiring correction. The special feature is that the wearer can adjust the power of each lens to his or her own requirements – this is particularly useful for developing world populations in areas which do not have adequate numbers of those specially trained personnel normally associated with the provision of vision correction.
The lenses in Adaptive Eyecare’s spectacles operate in a manner which is somewhat similar in its optical function to the crystalline lens in the human eye – our lenses have the feature that the curvature of the lens surfaces is under the control of the wearer of the spectacles, and a simple manual adjustment is all that is needed to vary the power of each lens. In use, the wearer adjusts each lens so as to get clearest vision. This process takes less than a minute for both eyes. Having found the best setting, the lenses are then set, and the ancillary device used for lens adjustment is removed and discarded.
Adaptive Eyecare’s adaptive lenses are fluid- filled and the power is changed by varying the amount of fluid in the lens. The power range of our lenses is +6 to -6 Dioptres, and the optical quality is similar to that of the typical human eye.

Of course, we’d like to see the quality that glasses made of stretchable membranes and liquid water can provide. They, obviously, can’t be all bad if 30,000 have already been distributed.
More from the Guardian…
Adaptive Eyecare – Technology…
(hat tip: Core77)