Getting close to electronics - sight problems!

[IanJ]

Hi all,

I've been short sighted since my teens (now 46) and in some ways it was an advantage at first in terms of electronics because it meant I could wear my glasses (for distance) and still see at very close distances.

However, in the past few years I've found that I need to take my glasses off to get close up to the action.
Glasses on minimum focus distance = 50cm
Glasses off minimum focus distance = 17cm

So, I find that I take I am forever shifting my glasses from my forehead to my eyes at the workbench. Those with good eyesight but needing reading glasses have an advantage here as they can look 'over' the rims........not so easy for me to look 'under' mine!

I'm toying with the idea of bi-focals or vari-focals........but to tell you the truth I've tried vari's in the past but can't get used to the blurred peripheral vision (unless I chose badly!). I'm also toying with bi-focals but a 50/50 split top to bottom.

Any suggestions before I spend my hard earned?

Ian.
[ain't age a pain!]

[sacherjj]

You may just need to make some nose piece extenders.  Then you can look under the glasses for close up. 

[saturation]

Try layering a cheapo reading glass infront of your regular glasses like you would wear a loop on your glasses; they provide enough correction so you needn't remove your eyeglasses to see much nearer, and how close you can be depends on the diopter of the reading glass, the higher the closer your focal length will be.   This works best if any astigmatism correction in your regular eyeglasses are essentially none.  I have cords on temples, so I can drop the eyeglasses around my neck when I use just my regular glasses, or drop both eyeglasses when I need the focal length of just my uncorrected vision.

For magnification, I wear these infront of my regular glasses and the reading glasses, again depending on how close you need to be, the magnifiers allow you to work a good distance from the object, such as with soldering or hot air guns.

[RayJones]

Welcome to the old timer's club 

Unfortunately it is pretty normal for your ability to focus close up begins to fail from 40 onwards. Been there myself.

You keep on putting it off going to an optometrist, but it was hammered home to me one day when working on some equipment within a semi confined space - I could not get my head back far enough to focus on fine print.
Another chap was equally impaired.
A fine young trainee fella in his early twenties then kindly pointed out where R12 was and made a comment along the lines
"What's wrong with you two, are you blind or something"

He was quite correct.

I also get the impression that Dave is holding out on the optometrist visit too....
I'm sure there must be a video in that 

[Mechatrommer]

new project anyone? autofocus retinal auto detection electronics actuated optical lens system for visual impaired patient, err... ee hobbiest. sorry. i'll try to value my eyes more than anything else, i hope so.

[ivan747]

new project anyone? autofocus retinal auto detection electronics actuated optical lens system for visual impaired patient, err... ee hobbiest. sorry. i'll try to value my eyes more than anything else, i hope so.

Their are called camera lenses and auto-focus! Oh wait, you mean like for humans, right?

[FreeThinker]

Well all I can say is you were warned that it would make you go blind... but did you take any notice?  

[Mechatrommer]

new project anyone? autofocus retinal auto detection electronics actuated optical lens system for visual impaired patient, err... ee hobbiest. sorry. i'll try to value my eyes more than anything else, i hope so.

Their are called camera lenses and auto-focus! Oh wait, you mean like for humans, right?

there has been technology to detect where eye is moving/looking at and try to focus that area in camera. maybe that tech can be brought to eyeglasses, or at least something like shown in saturation's link. with micro motor for autofocus and lenses infront battery operated embedded etc etc.

[FreeThinker]

new project anyone? autofocus retinal auto detection electronics actuated optical lens system for visual impaired patient, err... ee hobbiest. sorry. i'll try to value my eyes more than anything else, i hope so.

Their are called camera lenses and auto-focus! Oh wait, you mean like for humans, right?

there has been technology to detect where eye is moving/looking at and try to focus that area in camera. maybe that tech can be brought to eyeglasses, or at least something like shown in saturation's link. with micro motor for autofocus and lenses infront battery operated embedded etc etc.

Magnifier? Flashlight? Why all this tech to fix a simple problem? Good lighting and a reasonable lens will suffice in 99% of cases.

[Mechatrommer]

Magnifier? Flashlight? Why all this tech to fix a simple problem? Good lighting and a reasonable lens will suffice in 99% of cases.

i think you've wandered a bit. this is not about magnification and lighting. this is about focus correction and re-correction when we move our head farther than the subject

[FreeThinker]

Magnifier? Flashlight? Why all this tech to fix a simple problem? Good lighting and a reasonable lens will suffice in 99% of cases.

i think you've wandered a bit. this is not about magnification and lighting. this is about focus correction and re-correction when we move our head farther than the subject

Good lighting and some magnification will allow the eye to focus normally (or while glasses are worn). It would be very difficult for an electronic device to compensate for how out of focus your eyes are and would need setting up for each individual. This would involve expensive optics and would only achieve (at best) the same effect as a much cheaper microscope or magnifier. A decent digital camera set on a tripod or mount could be used to output an image to a monitor or even a webcam could be used.Electronically controlled glasses are only for the likes of Joe 90.

[pablo]

unfortunately that's pretty normal. I'm 27 and i'm not the one that i used to be.
Specially when fixing smt board the whole day, with pretty small components can worsen the problem.

[deephaven]

I go a shop that sells reading glasses, armed with a sample PCB, and try on a few different ones till I get the magnification I'm after.

[Mechatrommer]

unfortunately that's pretty normal. I'm 27 and i'm not the one that i used to be.
Specially when fixing smt board the whole day, with pretty small components can worsen the problem.

odd, i'm 34 and my eyes still strong thanks God. i suggest you spend more time going holiday, relax on flat/big land and look at green trees, grass etc (at close distance and farther) it can relax your eyes, or go to beach for picnic or else "eye washing" can be enjoyable too!

[ciccio]

I've a similar problem: my "near field" glasses must be changed with some "more powerful" every 3-4 years.
I was in the bizarre situation that I needed "this year" glasses for the keyboard, and "last year" glasses for the monitor's screen.
I ended up with buying special "twin focal" glasses, similar to those with "far" and "near" focus, but with dual graduation for near field. They work very well, I'm satisfied.
Sorry, but now I can't find any specification. If somebody is interested I'll look for them.

I've another problem: colors.
If there is not a very strong, white light, and some magnification, sometimes I cannot distinguish  colors, especially on resistors, and cannot read those "brown on black" texts on top if ICs.
Office and lab are full of "circline" lamps with magnifier, but yesterday I installed 22K  resistors in place of 3K3, and 10 boards were not working...

[Jon Chandler]

An option is "computer" glasses, which one brand calls "Interview" I believe.  These are a progressive lens, but the far distance is limited to the computer screen distance.  They keep things in focus when sitting at the desk or bench.

Just don't make the mistake I made and forget to change glasses before the drive home...everything seemed a bit further away than it actually was.  I'm sure my partner's screams that we were about to crash were exaggerated - most of them anyway