POSTED BY

Lisa Katayama

AT 9:36 AM
Thursday July 30, 2009

Accessories

glasses • Masunaga • Sarah Palin

Japanese auto-fogging glasses prevent long stares at the computer screen

masunaga_glasses.jpg

Sometimes geeks sit in front of computer screens for a really long time, and we forget to do stuff like eat food, drink water, and blink our eyes. That's why Masunaga, the company that designed Sarah Palin's glasses, is coming out with a new product called Wink Glasses on August 10th. A sensor attached to the lenses detects blinking movements; if it doesn't log any activity for five seconds, an ultra-thin liquid crystal sheet pasted onto the lens surface fogs up and doesn't clear up until you blink again. The sensor is operated by a battery rechargeable via USB &mdash I guess that means that if you don't charge them, they don't fog up. The frame and sensor set will cost about $400.

Product page [Masunaga via Impress]

0

11 Comments

mdh

#1 – 12:32 PM July 30, 2009

clever and somewhat practical, but not safe for driving.

Crispy Critter

#2 – 12:46 PM July 30, 2009

I'm waiting for the peril-sensitive version.

RedShirt77

#3 – 1:30 PM July 30, 2009

They should make a version for born agains that fogs over whenever too much nudity is visible.

NoahApples

#4 – 2:14 PM July 30, 2009

VEGETA. WHAT'S HIS POWER LEVEL?

devophill

#5 – 4:51 PM July 30, 2009

I think it's around 8999, why do you ask?

echolocate chocolate

#6 – 4:59 PM July 30, 2009

Depending on how they orient the liquid crystals they could arrange for them to be fogged by default and require power to de-fog. That would solve any unpleasant glasses-not-fogging-and-eyes-shrivelling-into-raisins situations.

Is this really a problem that people have, though?

More useful might be a screensaver that switches on every 10 minutes or so to make sure you're taking a moment to focus on a distant object, to avoid eye strain. Maybe these glasses do that too.

spazzm

#7 – 9:56 PM July 30, 2009

Could you hook up a webcam to do the same?

Detect faces in front of the screen, and if one of them doesn't blink for X seconds, slowly fade the screen to black until a blink is detected.

Someone should totally write an app that does this.

Halloween Jack

#8 – 2:17 PM July 31, 2009

How about one where, if you're in a vice-presidential campaign debate and you wink too often (say, more than twice), you automatically forfeit?

PaulR

#9 – 6:37 AM August 1, 2009

Why not make the computer screen go smudgy? You'd have to stop typing and mousing for 20 minutes to get the screen to clear.

Cheaper, too!

PaulR

#10 – 6:39 AM August 1, 2009

Crispy Critter, I still have mine from the HHTTG game.

(Not, not really, but I can make another pair.) (Hmmm, 'Make' article?)

DB

#11 – 9:43 AM August 2, 2009

Can BBG confirm the rumor that the Mark II version will, by way of sophisticated AI and biometrics, automatically administer a series of "unicorn chaser" pictures (or even a quick squirt of eyebleach) when appropriate?

Leave a comment