A billion spectacles

Josh Silver has a vision, one that will improve the eyesight of a billion people worldwide by 2020.  Many people, particularly the impoverished, suffer from poor vision without any means of obtaining corrective lenses.  Silver has invented an ingenious set of glasses that can be tailored by the wearer to improve his/her vision without the help of an optician.  His hope is to mass produce the specs for a dollar or so each.  What’s awesome about his plan is not so much the primary impact of improved vision (which is admittedly pretty awesome) but the secondary impacts of an ability to work and function in society and contribute to one’s own economic well-being.  Silver’s idea is both simple and revolutionary, and it has the potential to do so much for so many for comparatively little cost.

[Via Dark Roasted Blend]