April 2010
Post by member – Sonia Fazlali
I find myself writing about two subjects I know very little about but that I suppose is the very point of Areté Club: broadening your scope of knowledge, meeting interesting people and having stimulating discussions- the 7th April 2010 event “Designing For Our Future” was no exception. Held in a beautifully decorated room in the Naval and Military Club, I sat listening to our two speakers: Joshua Silver and Jim Maclean. The venue was perfectly suited to the subject matter of one of our speakers but our other speaker had brought props; thus enthralled and attentive I began to understand the way these men were designing the future and the implications of their work.
Joshua Silver is a man with a quest: to give sight to people around the world who lack the means of obtaining corrective eyewear. A professor in the Department of Atomic and Laser Physics, he has put aside lasers to take up investigating with optical lenses. His idea was to make lenses in spectacles that could be “tuned” by the wearer to provide the right focus to correct the wearer’s vision. There have been previous attempts for similar self-adjusting spectacles but Professor Silver’s design, although remarkably simple in its ingenuity, stands apart from all others due to the fact that he wanted his device to be durable and most importantly, cheap. Although he has been working on these adjustable lenses for just over two decades, he has created the first truly workable adjustable spectacles that are durable and that can pertain to his hugely ambitious quest- to provide eyesight to the world’s poorest by creating $1-a-pair spectacles.
It is hard to really imagine how these spectacles work- I was still dubious even listening to Professor Silver’s explanation until I got a chance to try on one of the pairs he had brought along to the dinner. Even to me it was magical and I can begin to imagine the effect it would have to a poor farmer or fisherman, with eyesight hopefully not as bad as mine, who has never had the chance to wear corrective eyewear. Essentially the lenses are made adjustable due to the principle that a fatter lens is a more powerful one. The lens itself is made of two tough plastic discs that are either side of a kind of gel or oil contained in a clear sac, which is connected to a syringe on the arm of the spectacles- one for the right lens and a separate one for the left lens. The wearer can adjust the power of the lens by “tuning” the dial that is attached to the syringe, adding or reducing the volume of the fluid in between the plastic discs. This not only makes the lens fatter or thinner accordingly but also gives a curvature to the lens, so that it is in principle very similar to the glass/plastic lens you would find in your spectacles at home. Once the image through the lens is clear, the syringes can be removed and a perfectly individualised pair of spectacles is created. The device is so simple that it can be distributed without much guidance.
The implications of his design are enormous. Figures from the WHO website states that there are 314 million people visually impaired worldwide with 87% of this number relating to developing countries. More specifically 670 million suffer vision impairment and unnecessary blindness due to uncorrected refractive error [Holden et al. 2008]. Refractive error is what can be solved through wearing spectacles, unlike cataracts or glaucomas where far more invasive treatments are needed. The WHO states that the correction of refractive errors could give normal vision to more than 12 million children aged between 5-15 years [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/].
The importance of opticians, optometrists and eye care services is not for a second undermined by Professor Silver; however, he sees the facts as they are- that in many areas of the developing world there is a huge demand for corrective eyewear and no basic eye care services to match. Although his self-adjustable spectacles do not equate to a full eye health check-up and prescription, they are in the meantime a means to restore good vision to many people. This would in turn mean that individuals who might previously have had limited education and employability could benefit from the same opportunities as those with good sight. Their quality of life improves as their independence, mobility and confidence increases. Literacy rates improve as quite understandably how can you teach on a blackboard to someone who cannot see what you are writing. Yet despite all his hard work so far, Professor Silver is still some distance from achieving his goal. His spectacles have been met with enthusiasm where they have been received (30,000 have already been distributed to 15 countries) but further work needs to be done in order to produce volumes of millions at the small price of $1-a-pair. Moreover, the importance of vision needs to be made clear to governments and health organizations so that increased funding and support can be given.
Jim MacLean was the second speaker of the evening whose excellent speech on security was very apt in the Naval and Military Club. The work conducted by MacLean and the team at Proform Marine, is a most effective response to a threat we have seen rise in this decade and which no doubt will continue in the near future. It is a most forward-thinking approach that would not look out of place featured in a sci-fi film. The Lasersec device that Proform Marine have developed is essentially a mounted or handheld device that produces a non-lethal laser beam from a multi-colour laser source. It aims to provide an effective solution to piracy and has been the most innovative response yet to the threat of piracy.
The beam is a defensive weapon that at most can travel 4km and be directed at an attacking vessel. At first I did not understand how this device could not be abused or misused on innocent parties but the key point is that it is a defensive instrument that has a minimal effect if used on an innocent party. The device projects a beam that is similar to looking into the sun- the effect is quite unpleasant and most would turn away- if it happened to shoot at an innocent party they would turn around and not approach the vessel. If, on the other hand, an aggressor were approaching the vessel, for example pirates who were quite committed to approaching the vessel, the effect of the beam would be increasingly felt. The aggressor would feel unsettled, nauseous or could even blackout.
The fact that the laser beam is multi-colour at source means it cannot just be filtered out by protective glasses, instead the device is really progressive to “non-lethal anti-piracy measures”. This is essential as the need for non-lethal weapons is fundamental to vessels traversing through international waters where mostly the transport of guns is an illegal act. Moreover, it is a cheaper alternative to armed protection, which many trading vessels and yachts have resorted to following the incredible rise in piracy in this decade. Piracy attacks have not only targeted these luxury yachts and cargo ships but have assailed chemical tankers and most importantly arms ships too. In the first six months of 2009 alone there were 240 piracy attacks, 78 vessels were boarded worldwide, 31 vessels hijacked, 561 crew taken hostage and many injured, missing or killed. Piracy is a serious problem for every country as the pirate has no particular agenda against one country but seeks to profit from anyone unfortunate enough to fall victim to them. In the Gulf of Aden near Somalia, the piracy problem is so prevalent that the area has been termed ‘the Gates of Hell”.
The United Nations Security Council has had to resort to temporarily allowing foreign warships limited rights within Somali territorial waters (UNSCR 1816 and 1846(2008) in order to protect vessels from piracy attacks. Some other responses have been to group vessels together but the feasibility of this strategy, let alone the cost of providing a military convoy is not a suitable long-term response. Many companies and private vessels are now realising increasingly that they must themselves have increased vigilance and willingness to adopt non-lethal defensive measures, especially as insurance premiums for vessels travelling through pirate-prone waters has escalated sky-high. Proform Marine seeks to provide them with the means to do so, giving control back to crews, giving vessels time when faced with a piracy attack and being a tool to avoid the escalation of violence.
