Dow Corning, a global leader in silicon-based technology, and the Centre for Vision in the Developing World collaborated to create a new way to help correct the vision of children in the developing world.
Dow Corning committed $3 million of funding and materials expertise to the CVDW to launch an initiative called Child ViSionTM. Self-adjustable eyeglasses were on display at Southwestern Michigan College during Thursday’s Mind Trekker STEM event for area high school seniors.
The Child ViSionTM initiative will design, manufacture and distribute a child-specific version of self-adjustable eyeglasses to children in the developing world. The aim is to increase the effectiveness of classroom-based education by improving children’s ability to see the blackboard from which they are being taught.
“There are 100 million children or more in the developing world who need glasses to benefit fully from their education in the classroom. This problem arises principally because there are too few eye care professionals in the developing world,” according to Prof. Josh Silver, Oxford University physicist, founder and director of the CVDW, and inventor of the world’s first universal fluid- filled adjustable eyeglasses.
“Through this collaboration with Dow Corning, CVDW can now expand our efforts to provide eyeglasses to the children who need them for their education.”
The goal of the CVDW, a United Kingdom-based Community Interest Company, is to improve vision for people in the developing world who lack access to adequate vision correction.
“This collaboration between Dow Corning and the Centre for Vision in the Developing World will combine our expertise to help bring improved vision correction to children in desperate need,” according to Stephanie A. Burns, chairman and CEO of Dow Corning.
Through Child ViSionTM, Dow Corning will work with the CVDW to explore how self-adjustable eyeglasses can be designed so the glasses are able to withstand daily use by children, are lightweight and look more appealing, increasing the likelihood they will be worn.
Another key element of the initiative will be to ensure the design can be scaled to mass-production levels.
“Dow Corning fluids played a critical role in Prof. Silver’s pioneering self-adjustable glasses, which have already provided vision correction to approximately 40,000 people in more than 20 countries,” said James Stephenson, leader of the Child ViSionTM initiative at Dow Corning.
Silver’s self-adjustable glasses contain special lenses composed of clear membranes filled with Dow Corning silicone fluid. By adding or removing fluid via a removable syringe and dial attached to the glasses’ frame, wearers can modify the curvature of the lenses and therefore the strength of their glasses.
Glasses are designed to provide vision correction for myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness) and presbyopia (inability to focus on near objects).