
Sunglasses that block out glare with lcd spot - pedalpete
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1510502615/electronic-sunglasses
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chaosmachine
_"They were a double pair of Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive
Sunglasses, which had been specially designed to help people develop a relaxed
attitude to danger. At the first hint of trouble they turn totally black and
thus prevent you from seeing anything that might alarm you."_

\- Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

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6ren
Killer-app for wearable-computing? Once a beach-head is secured, can add HUD,
games, telephony, movies...

I was concerned that the geometry calculation requires your pupil to be at a
precisely known location, but in practice, if it was off, you'd just adjust
the sunglasses (and maybe the temples can be made so that you feel their
position). You'd calibrate them when you first use them. Of course, the black-
spot can be made a little overlarge, for margin of error.

Larry Niven (surely not the only one) mentioned this idea in _Grendel_ (in the
Neutron Star collection), a 1968 shortstory, which included [MINOR SPOILER] an
update on the old fighter-pilot tactic of attacking out of the sun - which
with these sunglasses, is hidden by the black-spot.

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brc
I think you'd be surprised what a small variation there would be on pupil
location given a mounting point like a nose and a pair of ears. I'm guessing
the standard deviation for normal people would be very small, and a fudge
factor added to the blackout spot would cover 95% of the population. This
could also be also catered for by a range of say, 3 sizes, narrow, wide and
normal. George Bush gets a narrow, Uma Thurman gets a wide. It would be a snap
to try on each size and work out which one was best.

~~~
6ren
My comment was mainly about when glasses shift slightly on your face,
especially moving down the bridge. For conventional sunglasses, a small change
in location has little effect, but for these, even a millimeter could
correspond to over 10 pixels (depending on the dpi).

The pane is very close to the eye, so small changes are amplified if lines are
extended outward into the scene being viewed.

Actually, to be more accurate, it wouldn't depend on the location of the
pupil, but on the center of the eye (because the geometry is that when the eye
looks in different directions, it rotates about this center). The pupil moves
quite a lot, as you glance left and right.

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brc
Yes, you're right. So effectively the black spot is going to be of a
sufficient size to create a shaded area over 95% of the area that the pupil is
likely to be at any one time.

That's going to be difficult without having internally looking cameras that
monitor the pupil.

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lurkinggrue
Can the add a feature that will turn the entire field of view black when you
are in danger? This would be awesome as I would like a more relaxed attitude
to danger.

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jaekwon
Sunglasses are cool, but I think with two layers of LCD polarized light you
might be able to create an entire window that blocks the sun from reaching
_anywhere_ in the room directly.

The first sheet is polarized at 0 degrees and the second sheet is polarized at
90. When both sheets are _on_ the window is black. When you draw a certain
tiled pattern on the two sheets though, I hypothesize that you can _mostly_
block the sun from any angle and let _most_ of the ambient light in.

The only way I know how to solve this problem is w/ evolutionary algorithms,
which might be well suited. I think someone here might have some mathematical
insight into this though, so I'm putting it out there.

\-- update --

OK so we need _four_ sheets of LCDs, with each of the window layers having 2
LCD sheets each. Any light that goes through either layer is filtered with
some pattern of 0' or 90' pixels.

Any random pattern, as long as the two layers have inverted pixels, will block
the sun completely. Ambient light is allowed in at 50% brightness. So there
you go.

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jws
Two complementary sheets of any black/white Pattern should suffice. With some
space between. That would get you 25% of ambient and zero from one specific
direction. Make the inside of the outer layer and the outdid of the inner
layer reflective and you could approach 37%. Spacing can be very close, but
requires a smaller feature size. Regular patterns will cause moire patterns.

~~~
jaekwon
does this already exist? also, who are you?

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ars
Welders might buy this - they already have auto-darkening helmets, they might
be interested in something that darkened only part of the field of vision.

Of course you would have to be very careful on the design, since a failure
would be very hazardous.

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sliverstorm
This tech proposes the use of LCD's, and I don't think a blackened LCD can
provide the requisite protection from the radiation produced by welders.

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ars
They exist - google for auto darkening helmet, and they use LCDs.

The UV and infrared are always filtered (by the glass), and the LCD handles
darkening the visible light.

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ZoFreX
Yeah, it's not the visible spectrum that's harmful to your eyes. If you filter
out all of the harmful frequencies entirely, you can selectively filter the
visible spectrum for convenience while retaining a non-disastrous failure
mode.

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joe_bleau
Every evening commute I dream of this as the tall SUVs and pickups beam their
headlights of death into my fully dark adapted eyes. I was thinking
windshield, but sunglasses might work too.

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jonhendry
How about red lensed goggles? That'd preserve dark adaptation.

I've thought about this also. The increasingly bright headlights are probably
counterproductive in a public safety, tragedy-of-the-commons sense. Your
bright lights help you see a little better, but other drivers can see worse,
because of your lights.

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mkramlich
I was thinking more like rear-facing machineguns.

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jonhendry
That could work. Messy, though. How about rear-facing bright headlights hidden
inside the rear window that can be flashed on from the front seat.

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mkramlich
great idea. less illegal, plus more "eye for an eye". seems fair too

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MichaelApproved
I can see this as a great feature for a car windshield. Why bother even
wearing glasses when the LCD windshield can block out the sun while it gives
you a HUD.

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sparky
LCD windshields seem like something that would be regulated to oblivion (what
happens if a bug, unlucky particle strike, vulnerability, etc.) causes your
entire windshield to become opaque?) That said, in a world tolerant of
reasonable amounts of risk I agree.

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lrm242
The driver steps on the breaks, decelerating to a stop.

~~~
brianpan
Abruptly when he hit the bottom of the ravine.

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dnewms
Great idea and all, but the frames are going to have to match the style of
current glasses - without the electronics on the nosepiece. Otherwise, the
cool factor of wearing glasses is lost, and he might as well sell the honky
prototype.

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moultano
I bet they can find a market even if they are ugly. Commuters won't care,
they'll only be wearing them in the car anyways. There are a lot of people who
keep a pair of ugly over-your-normal-glasses sunglasses in the car all the
time.

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snth
Finally, someone is inventing these.

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Groxx
I've wanted this for car windshields for a long time. Head tracking could aim
the black dots, and you could even take out the glare of headlights (I hate
headlights while driving. Especially those extra-bright ones.). Unlikely to
ever happen, abso-positivelutely. But I can dream, can't I?

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joezydeco
How are you supposed to see cars at night if not for the headlights? Are you
supposed to judge their distance and approach from two glowing halos?

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InclinedPlane
If you are overly concerned about avoiding cars via seeing their headlights
perhaps you should try driving on the other side of the road, it's safer over
there.

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burgerbrain
You have clearly never driven in rural areas.

Curvy roads, and lack of light pollution in the sky, combined with probable
sleep deprivation doesn't make for a good situation. Even if _you_ stay on
your side of the road, who says that other guy coming in your direction is
doing as well?

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InclinedPlane
I have, I was being flippant.

Headlights in your face are not a very good way to keep track of traffic,
neither is a complete absence of light where a car should be though. An
optimal solution would probably be something that prevented getting blinded by
oncoming headlights while still retaining enough visual cue to be able to
perceive that a car is headed towards you and to track its position.

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sliverstorm
Fantastic! I always wanted a pair of glasses like this for a bunch of project
ideas (heck, including this very idea). I wonder what the odds are they will
be hackable for other purposes?

~~~
dhughes
Giant bug attacks imminent!

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fleitz
Great idea, unfortunately they look ridiculous. Will be as successful as the
Segway

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sgt
I would fund this, although I'm broke now.

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daviding
\- low battery warning -

 _sound of car crashing_

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LordLandon
Same concept as escalartors never breaking - just becoming expensive stairs.

~~~
thijsterlouw
Just yesterday here in Shenzhen "Escalator malfunction injures 24". Anything
can break unexpectedly...

src :
[http://szdaily.sznews.com/html/2010-12/15/content_1360566.ht...](http://szdaily.sznews.com/html/2010-12/15/content_1360566.htm)

~~~
gjm11
... including ordinary stairs: e.g.,
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_Museum_%28Irela...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_Museum_%28Ireland%29#Stairway_collapse)
.

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mhb
Next step - HDR glasses.

~~~
sukuriant
Our eyes already see in HDR

