Oct 20, 2016 | By Andre
3D printing is heavily entrenched in the Maker movement in that the technology allows for any individual with a bit of a creative spark to create something entirely new from scratch. For many of these individuals they surround themselves with like minded others at maker spaces and conventions.
Then other times, there are folks like reddit contributor Annoying_guest (Yousif Ashoor) that simply think of something, design and 3D print that something and throw it up on Reddit and see for what happens.
In this case, he decided to make sunglasses that automatically move back and forth in front of his eyes depending on whether a specific amount of UV rays are present or not. And as you can see in the video below, the shades are already fully functional (although he admits a few glitches still remain in his early prototype).
Taking influence from the preview trailer of the always popular video game series Deus Ex, he didn’t expect much fan fare or necessarily feel he was part of some grand movement as many Makers do. Instead, as he suggests, he “created these glasses on a whim after seeing some trailers for Deus Ex” and that he “thought it would be cool to have something like the augments Adam Jenson has so [he] used [his] knowledge of 3D printing and design.”
And while many of the reddit comments focus on the questionable aesthetics and fear of automatic shades slicing so close to the eye, there is a lot of valuable information to be gathered in the thread thanks to Yousif’s commentary.
He notes that he used both a Zortax M200 and modified Solidoodle to 3D print the parts (freely available on thingiverse). This means if you want to 3D print your own, just about any desktop filament based 3D printer could get the job done.
Unfortunately (for now) the specific breakdown of the sensors and electronic components used to work their magic has yet to be shared. This said he has mentioned an Arduino Nano and some basic lipo batteries are integral to its function. And if you can’t wait for him to create an Instructables page for his glasses, you can probably get some guidance via YouTube tech contributor Ben Heck thanks to his bionic sunglasses.
Going forward, after hearing suggestions from others about how he should make a modified version for motorcycle helmets to block out sun, he admitted already having thought of making a full face helmet for cycling that incorporates his design.
Does the world need the auto-retracting sunglasses in their current form? Maybe. Maybe not. But they certainly function faster than chemically induced transition based sunglasses and are absolutely more sci-fi. I don’t see why with a little fine-tuning, these can’t be practical to someone somewhere and its completely possible this will end up somewhere on Kickstarter in the coming year.
But until then, and in the typical reddit user fashion, he continues to reply to questions and even make light of its original influence (see the Deus Ex video clip below). He's doing so without seeking out the Maker community's acceptance but instead because it's so very cool, and of course because he can.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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This reminds me of the sunglasses Jenson has in deus ex.