Whether it was rays from the Sun that made a 150 million kilometer trip just to ruin your day or somebody’s unreasonably bright aftermarket headlights, at some point or another we’ve all experienced the discomfort of bright spots in our eyes. But short of wearing welder’s goggles all the time, what can we do? Luckily for us, [Nick Bild] has come up with a solution. Sort of.
By adding LCDs to a pair of standard sunglasses, [Nick] has created something he’s calling “Light Brakes”. The idea is that the LCDs, having their backings removed, can essentially be used as programmable shutters to block out a specific part of the image that’s passing through them. With the addition of a Raspberry Pi and a camera, the Light Brakes can identify an unusually bright source of light and block it from the wearer’s vision by drawing a sufficiently large blob on the LCDs.
At least, that’s the idea. As you can see in the video after the break, the LCDs ability to block out a moving source of light is somewhat debatable. It’s also unclear what, if any, effect the “blocking” would have on UV, so you definitely shouldn’t try looking at the sun with a pair of these.
That said, a refined version of the concept could have some very interesting applications. For instance, imagine a pair of glasses that could actively block out advertisements or other unpleasant images from your field of vision. If this all sounds a bit like something out of an episode of Black Mirror, that’s because it is.
Attentive readers may have noticed that this isn’t the first time these fashionable frames have graced the pages of Hackaday. Over the summer they were used in a very interesting field of view home automation project that [Nick] was working on. This also isn’t the first time he’s stuck a pair of small LCDs in front of his eyes in the name of progress. We’re starting to identify something of a trend here, though we certainly aren’t complaining.
Selective peril sensitive sunglasses? :)
https://hackaday.io/project/580-peril-sensitive-sunglasses
Reminds me the Peril Sensitive Sunglasses from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – “Designed to help the wearer develop a relaxed attitude to danger. The lenses turn completely black at the first hint of trouble, thus preventing the wearer from seeing anything that might alarm him/her.”
2.HHGTTG 5,25: (((…))) 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.
To be fair everyone seems excessively offended by everything nowadays, boomers included.
I love how people think “YOUR OFFENDED” counts as meaningful social commentary.
Cool, all sorts of augmented reality options, ideas a plenty – transforming to productive potential can be absorbing. Great hack opportunities too, ie its now more likely than ever you might not get what you see ;-)
Thanks for posting, cheers
Ramble here : ever heard of photochromic glasses ? No wire ,no battery, just works.
Those take time to transition, and do the whole lens. I think the idea behind this is to only darken pinpoints
But slowly, especially when coming into a dark room from the bright outdoors.
They don’t trigger inside a car since they’re UV-triggered, or am I misremembering?
Larry Niven’s “Ringworld” books mentioned goggles like this.
If they could be quick and safe, welders all over the world would line up for them, since instant-darkening helmet lenses are already in use.
But the entire welding helmet protects the rest of the face from a bad sunburn.
Of course – I meant that having lenses in helmets that would give the ability to see the rest of the work while damping out welding arcs would be a real boon.
you understand this uses the exact same tech that those instant darkening welding helmets use?
Meadowlark Optics makes LCD shutters for laser beams.
http://www.meadowlark.com
Ha, I like the title of the post. Nice, Tom.
Real life FCC like censoring is finally achievable ;-)
“Are you naked or is that just a black bar you’re wearing?”
oh and just imagine importing your social medias filter bubbles to the glasses….