We revere Santa Claus as our mysterious giver of gifts, but the rest of the world may reserve that spot for Josh Silver. Professor Joshua Silver, to be specific – a retired physics teacher at Oxford University who has developed “Silver Glasses,” which are tunable spectacles that need no optometrist to adjust. That’s because the glasses have syringes filled with silicone liquid connected to each lens, and the wearer only has to inject or suck out the fluid until the view through the lenses looks right.

Voilà! No optometrist fees, and the glasses are cheap and rugged. It’s a bit reminiscent of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program, which brought bare-bones laptops to impoverished nations. 10,000 Silver Glasses have already been delivered to Ghana on a trial basis, and Silver and co. hope to send out one million pairs a year, with the hope of having one billion of the spectacles on heads around the world by 2020.

Via Dvice