ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joshua Silver - Optical innovator
Atomic physicist Joshua Silver invented liquid-filled optical lenses to produce low-cost, adjustable glasses, giving sight to millions without access to an optometrist.

Why you should listen

Joshua Silver reckons that around half the world's population needs corrective eyewear, yet has no access to it. His ultra-utilitarian spectacle design relies on the principle that the fatter the lens, the more powerful it becomes. The lenses are filled with liquid, and can be adjusted to different strengths by adding or removing fluid from tiny syringes on each arm, then locked to the right strength.

More than 30,000 of his lenses have been distributed in 15 countries, and a new model will scale that number up to millions.

More profile about the speaker
Joshua Silver | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2009

Joshua Silver: Adjustable liquid-filled eyeglasses

Filmed:
846,186 views

Josh Silver delivers his brilliantly simple solution for correcting vision at the lowest cost possible -- adjustable, liquid-filled lenses. At TEDGlobal 2009, he demos his affordable eyeglasses and reveals his global plan to distribute them to a billion people in need by 2020.
- Optical innovator
Atomic physicist Joshua Silver invented liquid-filled optical lenses to produce low-cost, adjustable glasses, giving sight to millions without access to an optometrist. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:19
I'm going to tell you about one of the world's largest problems
0
1000
4000
00:23
and how it can be solved.
1
5000
4000
00:27
I'd like to start with a little experiment.
2
9000
4000
00:31
Could you put your hand up if you wear glasses or contact lenses,
3
13000
6000
00:37
or you've had laser refractive surgery?
4
19000
3000
00:40
Now, unfortunately, there are too many of you for me to do the statistics properly.
5
22000
7000
00:47
But it looks like -- I'm guessing -- that it'll be about 60 percent of the room
6
29000
5000
00:52
because that's roughly the fraction of developed world population
7
34000
6000
00:58
that have some sort of vision correction.
8
40000
3000
01:02
The World Health Organization estimates --
9
44000
5000
01:07
well, they make various estimates of the number of people who need glasses --
10
49000
4000
01:11
the lowest estimate is 150 million people.
11
53000
4000
01:15
They also have an estimate of around a billion.
12
57000
4000
01:19
But in fact, I would argue that we've just done an experiment here and now,
13
61000
4000
01:23
which shows us that the global need for corrective eyewear
14
65000
4000
01:27
is around half of any population.
15
69000
4000
01:31
And the problem of poor vision, is actually not just a health problem,
16
73000
7000
01:38
it's also an educational problem,
17
80000
3000
01:41
and it's an economic problem, and it's a quality of life problem.
18
83000
6000
01:47
Glasses are not very expensive. They're quite plentiful.
19
89000
5000
01:52
The problem is, there aren't enough eye care professionals in the world
20
94000
7000
01:59
to use the model of the delivery of corrective eyewear
21
101000
4000
02:03
that we have in the developed world.
22
105000
2000
02:05
There are just way too few eye care professionals.
23
107000
3000
02:08
So this little slide here shows you an optometrist
24
110000
3000
02:11
and the little blue person represents about 10,000 people
25
113000
5000
02:16
and that's the ratio in the U.K.
26
118000
2000
02:18
This is the ratio of optometrists to people in sub-Saharan Africa.
27
120000
5000
02:23
In fact, there are some countries in sub-Saharan Africa
28
125000
2000
02:25
where there's one optometrist for eight million of the population.
29
127000
6000
02:31
How do you do this? How do you solve this problem?
30
133000
4000
02:35
I came up with a solution to this problem,
31
137000
3000
02:38
and I came up with a solution based on adaptive optics for this.
32
140000
3000
02:41
And the idea is you make eye glasses, and you adjust them yourself
33
143000
4000
02:45
and that solves the problem.
34
147000
2000
02:47
What I want to do is to show you that one can make a pair of glasses.
35
149000
8000
02:55
I shall just show you how you make a pair of glasses. I shall pop this in my pocket.
36
157000
6000
03:01
I'm short sighted. I look at the signs at the end, I can hardly see them.
37
163000
5000
03:06
So -- okay, I can now see that man running out there,
38
168000
4000
03:11
and I can see that guy running out there.
39
173000
2000
03:13
I've now made prescription eyewear to my prescription.
40
175000
3000
03:18
Next step in my process.
41
180000
3000
03:21
So, I've now made eye glasses to my prescription.
42
183000
4000
03:26
Okay, so I've made these glasses and ...
43
188000
4000
03:32
Okay, I've made the glasses to my prescription and ...
44
194000
5000
03:39
... I've just ...
45
201000
2000
03:51
And I've now made some glasses. That's it.
46
213000
3000
03:54
(Applause)
47
216000
7000
04:01
Now, these aren't the only pair in the world.
48
223000
4000
04:05
In fact, this technology's been evolving.
49
227000
3000
04:08
I started working on it in 1985,
50
230000
3000
04:11
and it's been evolving very slowly.
51
233000
3000
04:14
There are about 30,000 in use now.
52
236000
2000
04:16
And they're in fifteen countries. They're spread around the world.
53
238000
4000
04:20
And I have a vision, which I'll share with you.
54
242000
3000
04:23
I have a global vision for vision.
55
245000
3000
04:26
And that vision is to try to get a billion people
56
248000
5000
04:31
wearing the glasses they need by the year 2020.
57
253000
5000
04:36
To do that -- this is an early example of the technology.
58
258000
3000
04:39
The technology is being further developed --
59
261000
2000
04:41
the cost has to be brought down.
60
263000
2000
04:43
This pair, in fact, these currently cost about 19 dollars.
61
265000
5000
04:48
But the cost has to be brought right down.
62
270000
2000
04:50
It has to be brought down because we're trying to serve populations
63
272000
3000
04:53
who live on a dollar a day.
64
275000
2000
04:55
How do you solve this problem?
65
277000
2000
04:57
You start to get into detail.
66
279000
2000
04:59
And on this slide, I'm basically explaining all the problems you have.
67
281000
5000
05:04
How do you distribute? How do you work out how to fit the thing?
68
286000
4000
05:08
How do you have people realizing that they have a vision problem?
69
290000
4000
05:12
How do you deal with the industry?
70
294000
2000
05:14
And the answer to that is research.
71
296000
4000
05:18
What we've done is to set up the Center for Vision in the Developing World
72
300000
4000
05:22
here in the university.
73
304000
2000
05:24
If you want to know more, just come have a look at our website. Thank you.
74
306000
3000
05:27
(Applause)
75
309000
2000

▲Back to top

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Joshua Silver - Optical innovator
Atomic physicist Joshua Silver invented liquid-filled optical lenses to produce low-cost, adjustable glasses, giving sight to millions without access to an optometrist.

Why you should listen

Joshua Silver reckons that around half the world's population needs corrective eyewear, yet has no access to it. His ultra-utilitarian spectacle design relies on the principle that the fatter the lens, the more powerful it becomes. The lenses are filled with liquid, and can be adjusted to different strengths by adding or removing fluid from tiny syringes on each arm, then locked to the right strength.

More than 30,000 of his lenses have been distributed in 15 countries, and a new model will scale that number up to millions.

More profile about the speaker
Joshua Silver | Speaker | TED.com