The idea has been around for a while but Frederik van Asbeck has now put it into practice: "adjustable glasses". A pair of glasses which allow the wearers to correct their eyesight themselves.
At the corner of the frames are little cogwheels which are used to adjust the focus. Turning the cogwheels slides two lenses across each other, changing the focal length and therefore the strength of the glasses.
It's a simple principle, devised by Nobel Prize-winning US physicist Luis Alvarez, but it requires extremely high-tech manufacturing methods to make it work well.
Five years in the developing
After five years of preparations, the first glasses will soon be emerging from the factory. They are designed for people in developing countries with poor eyesight who do not have access to an optician. The World Health Organisation (WHO) puts the number at around one billion. The glasses will be available at cost price, which - thanks to mass production methods - means between two and four US dollars a pair.
The first batch will be handed out next month to people in Afghanistan by Dutch soldiers stationed in Uruzgan province. Next year Frederik van Asbeck plans to produce a million pairs.
More production lines may be started in order to make even greater numbers. The aim is to have assembly take place in the developing countries themselves since, Van Asbeck claims, it's so simple that a blind man could do it.
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