Mike Brinker

Simulation

Roughly 1/3 of the American population suffers from myopia or nearsightedness (trouble seeing distant objects). I myself have it pretty bad and need new prescription lenses every so often. For my simulation project, I decided to simulate my spectacles...althought it turns out that I simulated "better vision" and not the glasses themselves. Here is a pic of my glasses that I wear around a lot.

So, I decided to simulate better vision through the use of something called pinhole glasses. Essentially, using some wire, paper and a thumb tack, I created the following...

and a close up...

The results are a surprisingly better, clearer image of the world for us myopic folks. The results vary drastically from daytime inside to daytime outside use, outside being the best because of the daytime sunlight. After a little research however, these things are simulating better vision but aren't correcting it in the least. The following few diagrams clear up the mystery. Figure 1 shows what a myopic eye does, which is to focus the image too far in front of the back of the eye, creating a blurred image.

The next picture shows what corrective lenses (prescription glasses and contacts) are supposed to do, which is correct the focal point of the image, so that it displays exactly on the back of the eye, making images crisp and sharp.

The final picture shows what pinhole's and pinhole glasses do. It's a hack, as is most of my creations, but essentially all it's doing is creating less of a blur. This expirement can be performed by just punching one tiny hole in a piece of paper and holding it up to your eye.

And there you have it, a simulation of what glasses do, give you better vision!