Fluidic glasses for correcting refractive errors of a human or animal
Fluidic glasses for correcting refractive errors of a human or animal are disclosed herein. The fluidic glasses includes at least one flexible fluidic lens having an outer housing and a flexible membrane supported within the outer housing, the flexible membrane at least partially defining a chamber that receives a fluid therein; and a fluid control system operatively coupled to the at least one flexible fluidic lens, the fluid control system configured to insert an amount of the fluid into the chamber of the at least one flexible fluidic lens, or remove an amount of the fluid from the chamber of the at least one flexible fluidic lens, in order to change the shape of the at least one flexible fluidic lens in accordance with the amount of fluid therein, thereby correcting the refractive errors of an eye of a human or animal.
1. Fluidic glasses for correcting refractive errors of a human or animal, the fluidic glasses comprising:
at least one flexible fluidic lens having an outer housing and a flexible membrane supported within the outer housing, the flexible membrane at least partially defining a chamber that receives a fluid therein;
a fluid control system operatively coupled to the at least one flexible fluidic lens, the fluid control system configured to insert an amount of the fluid into the chamber of the at least one flexible fluidic lens, or remove an amount of the fluid from the chamber of the at least one flexible fluidic lens, in order to change the shape of the at least one flexible fluidic lens in accordance with the amount of fluid therein, thereby correcting the refractive errors of an eye of a human or animal; and
a solid plate disposed adjacent to the chamber of the at least one flexible fluidic lens, the solid plate being in a form of a transitional lens with a light-sensitive pigment that changes color based upon the amount of light absorbed by the transitional lens;
wherein the transitional lens comprises a central region that is free of the light-sensitive pigment, and a peripheral region surrounding the central region that contains the light-sensitive pigment so that the peripheral region becomes darker when activated by light, thereby producing a pinhole transitional lens where objects viewed through the central region of the pinhole transitional lens are in focus for the human or animal; and
wherein the pinhole transitional lens is in a form of a Fresnel diffractive lens that includes multiple zones of prisms so as to provide a plurality of fixed diffractive plus zone focal points, the multiple zones of the Fresnel diffractive lens being for presbyopia correction of near vision of the human or animal, and the at least one flexible fluidic lens being for myopia correction of distance vision of the human or animal.
2. The fluidic glasses according to claim 1 , wherein the fluid control system comprises a pump and one or more fluid distribution lines, the pump including a push and pull motor or a step motor activated electronically via a switch to add or remove fluid from the chamber of the at least one flexible fluidic lens, at least one of the one or more fluid distribution lines fluidly coupling the pump to the at least one flexible fluidic lens so that the pump is capable of adjusting concavity and/or convexity of the at least one flexible fluidic lens.
3. The fluidic glasses according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one flexible fluidic lens comprises a first flexible fluidic lens with a first fluid chamber disposed in a front of the fluidic glasses for correction of myopia or hyperopia and a second flexible fluidic lens with a second fluid chamber disposed in a rear of the fluidic glasses for correction of hyperopia, thereby enabling the fluidic glasses to function as a presbyopic bifocal fluidic lens for correcting for both hyperopia and myopia of the human or animal.
4. The fluidic glasses according to claim 3 , wherein the solid plate is disposed between the first fluid chamber of the first flexible fluidic lens and the second fluid chamber of the second flexible fluidic lens so as to separate the first fluid chamber from the second fluid chamber.
5. The fluidic glasses according to claim 4 , wherein the solid plate has a generally flat shape and is formed from a rigid transparent glass or rigid polymeric material.
6. The fluidic glasses according to claim 3 , wherein the second flexible fluidic lens in the rear of the fluidic glasses for correcting hyperopia is approximately half the size of the first flexible fluidic lens in the front of the fluidic glasses for correcting myopia.
7. The fluidic glasses according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one flexible fluidic lens comprises a first flexible fluidic lens with a first fluid chamber disposed in a front of a first eye of the human or animal for correcting the refractive errors of the first eye and a second flexible fluidic lens with a second fluid chamber disposed in a front of a second eye of the human or animal for correcting the refractive errors of the second eye, thereby enabling the fluidic glasses to provide stereovision correction for the human or animal.
8. The fluidic glasses according to claim 1 , wherein the central region of the transitional lens that is free of the light-sensitive pigment has a diameter between 1 and 4 millimeters.
9. The fluidic glasses according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one flexible fluidic lens comprises a first flexible fluidic lens with a first fluid chamber disposed in front of the pinhole transitional lens for correction of myopia and a second flexible fluidic lens with a second fluid chamber disposed behind the pinhole transitional lens for correction of hyperopia, thereby enabling the fluidic glasses to function as a presbyopic bifocal fluidic lens for correcting both hyperopia and myopia of the human or animal.
10. The fluidic glasses according to claim 9 , wherein the second flexible fluidic lens behind the pinhole transitional lens for correcting hyperopia is approximately half the size of the first flexible fluidic lens in the front of the pinhole transitional lens for correcting myopia.
11. A method of using a hybrid fluidic lens for correcting refractive errors of a human or animal, the method comprising the steps of:
objectively measuring the refractive power of the eye of the human or animal using an automated handheld objective refractometer and phoropter;
providing a hybrid fluidic lens for correcting refractive errors of the human or animal, the hybrid fluidic lens including at least one flexible fluidic lens and a pinhole transitional lens;
verifying the accuracy of the desired dioptric power of the hybrid fluidic lens using a standard lensometer; and
correcting the refractive error of the desired dioptric power while the hybrid fluidic lens is under the lensometer to achieve the prescription power measured with an objective phoropter, fluidic lens, and Shack-Hartmann system;
wherein the pinhole transitional lens comprises a solid plate disposed adjacent to a chamber of the at least one flexible fluidic lens, the solid plate comprising a light-sensitive pigment that changes color based upon the amount of light absorbed by the pinhole transitional lens;
wherein the pinhole transitional lens comprises a central region that is free of the light-sensitive pigment, and a peripheral region surrounding the central region that contains the light-sensitive pigment so that the peripheral region becomes darker when activated by light, thereby producing the pinhole transitional lens where objects viewed through the central region of the pinhole transitional lens are in focus for the human or animal; and
wherein the pinhole transitional lens is in a form of a Fresnel diffractive lens that includes multiple zones of prisms so as to provide a plurality of fixed diffractive plus zone focal points, the multiple zones of the Fresnel diffractive lens being for presbyopia correction of near vision of the human or animal, and the at least one flexible fluidic lens being for myopia correction of distance vision of the human or animal.