Making My Own Glasses • Hacker News Board

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#121

Post by lmpostor » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 5:46 PM UTC

olieidel wrote: post #59

chooseaname wrote: post #10

> As a doctor I know some things about the human eye so I understand how to use those lenses. However, I have no clue about the magic ritual of the optician (“Do you see better with this lens?” - selects random lens and holds it in front of my eye). >Luckily, I didn’t have to. There's a specific reason why they do this and ask you to make a decision in an instant. It's called accommodation. Your eyes will quickly try…

Yes, I am a doctor. As far as I remember, I studied medicine and graduated. As other comments point out, medicine is a very specialized field nowadays and I didn't specialize in any field (I got into coding healthcare software instead) - in Germany you study all disciplines at University (min. 6 years) and then specialize during something comparable to US residency in a hospital. I understand the process of accommoda…

Well FYI, cyl is generally converted into minus cyl, the axis flips 180. So your first two measurements of cyl are close together.

Also cyl/sphere differential is also hard to determine but often follows a pattern in that you can overcompensate in sphere for cyl and vice versa.

Not even going to begin to go into the effects of possible tolerance differential, prism imbalance, and that is just with Single Vision Lenses.

Also you generally have 90 days as industry standard to go back and retest your RX.

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#122

Post by stevekemp » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 5:46 PM UTC

ThePadawan wrote: post #37

wonderwonder wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This did strike me as strange. Imagine going to a doctor getting a blood test and being told your numbers are good or bad but the doctor refusing to give you the actual result. They are your results, you paid for them and are part of an overall need to understand your health.

I actually read up on the local legalese around this (for Switzerland), and it turns out that doctors can refuse to share information with the patient if they consider it unhelpful/dangerous to do so, but have to share it with other medical staff should they request it. Especially in the context of psychotherapy or when using placebos, this makes a lot of sense.

I found it fascinating, after moving to Finland and having an MRI scan done, that it was possible to order a copy of the results on CD-ROM posted to my house.

Having worked in the medical field in the past exploring a DICOM dataset was no challenge, and the end result is I have a rotating 3D-view of my own brain! (Well just blood vessels, but still ..)

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#123

Post by mister_hn » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 5:52 PM UTC

emptybits wrote: post #5

Fascinating hacker story in an unexpected domain. Thank you! A side note about "getting your numbers"... The author remarks, "she’s not happy to share the measurements with me as she fears I’ll run off and get my glasses made online". This will obviously vary by jurisdiction but what the author describes may be illegal in some places. e.g. where I live, there is a law since 2010 requiring opticians and optometrists "…

In Italy I've got the measurements since 30 years and counting.

I imagine the healthcare system plays against you in your country

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#124

Post by jaclaz » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 5:55 PM UTC

patrec wrote: post #104

jaclaz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I may, particularly as a doctor yourself, you should call the eye doctor "ophthalmologist", as you surely know if you use "part of the body + doctor" there might be issues should you report a visit by a "proctologist" ...

Why replace a good, short and clear word with a bad and long word that adds no information, but fewer people will understand? [Edit: I think I'm wrong about the adding no information, depending on country there might be other types of eye doctors than ophthalmologists]

Come on, it was only a (good?) old joke ...

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#125

Post by bredren » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:04 PM UTC

donjoe wrote: post #17

Everytime I read about glasses I have to think about the Luxottica-Monopoly which kind of controls most of the market and prices of glasses/lenses. https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-glass...

I remembered this as well. This bothers me, as I just had to get a new set and they are ridiculously expensive. I originally opened the article hoping that this was some kind of "I 3d printed my own frames" or something to that effect. I am hoping someone will figure out how to disrupt this industry.

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#126

Post by IronWolve » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:08 PM UTC

cameronh90 wrote: post #33

alfonsodev wrote: post #2

> Optician: “Now with this lens, do you see better or worse?” > O: “Honestly, I have no clue. Maybe. Maybe not? The letters look similar but different.” [edit] Reprahsing to make it clearer: will it be possible in the future to measure objectively?

Sort of. There's a device called an autorefractor which can get a pretty good estimate out of your refractive error. However traditional eyesight tests tend to provide better results. I believe wavefront guided LASIK uses some kind of automatic method of determining refractive error called an aberrometer. Some ophthalmologists have a device called an i-profiler that they use as part of their assessment which appears…

I was excited to get lasik when wavefront came out due to one eye having astigmatism. I came out with 20:15 in one eye, 20/20 in the other. Overcorrection is normally avoided, but I jumped when wavefront lasik came out. Totally worth it.

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#127

Post by jfengel » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:11 PM UTC

davinic wrote: post #105

jfengel wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may take some practice. I did it myself once, and was off by about 4 mm. The resulting glasses were incredibly painful. My eyes would try to look in two slightly different directions, and my brain would put the wrong 3D picture together. Whenever I moved my head my eyes would readjust, which took a noticeable period of time, and I could literally feel my non-dominant eye turning itself to find the focus. I chuck…

When I bought online from Zenni optical they sent a plastic ruler that you set on the bridge of your nose with a slot in the middle, and can be used to measure PD. It's similar to this: https://store.eyeque.com/eyeque-pd-ruler.html

Thanks for the tip. That would be way easier than doing it with a plastic school ruler.

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#128

Post by 77pt77 » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:15 PM UTC

> she’s not happy to share the measurements with me as she fears I’ll run off and get my glasses made online (I’d never do that!).

This is ridiculous. Why should I not be given the value measurements that have just been made?

That's why I bought my own optician test lens set and now do the measurements myself. I can also test these measurements over a long period of time looking at a screen for example.

I've had people stop short of saying I should be arrested and that I'm doing something illegal.

The cost, one or two visits to the optometrist.

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#129

Post by com2kid » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:20 PM UTC

donjoe wrote: post #17

Everytime I read about glasses I have to think about the Luxottica-Monopoly which kind of controls most of the market and prices of glasses/lenses. https://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-glass...

It is pretty easy to get non-Luxottica frames.

Not too surprisingly, independent small batch production runs of frames end up costing a lot of money.

There are also artisan frame makers who hand make the frames. If you are going to pay $300 for some frames, mine as well get an actual work of craftsmanship.

At the end of the day, most Luxottica frames are actually far cheaper than the high end independent frames you can buy. Exceptions are the fancy branded frames, but at that point the $ is for the Gucci logo.

Online bare bones frames also exist, or just go to Costco.

A 3x-4x markup at retail is normal. For low traffic businesses, an even higher markup is needed to stay in business.

Those online stores do a lot of volume, and don't have to pay leases or for nearly as many opticians to be on staff.

> that the prices we pay for eyewear in no way reflect the actual cost of making frames and lenses.

Of course it doesn't. The price we pay for eyewear is the price we value it at. Just like literally everything else that is sold in stores that isn't a commodity good.

Doesn't help that insurance is involved. $200 a year eyeglasses allowance. Eyeglasses end up costing $200. Is anyone surprised?

Re: Making My Own Glasses

#130

Post by jblakey » Fri, Oct 04, 2019, 6:31 PM UTC

mikepurvis wrote: post #94

LoSboccacc wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you paid for them most places that sell glasses do those for free tho. I agree they should be given out and they do in europe, or at least in the two states I lived, but being paid for is not the angle to come at it from

I don't think I've ever had a free exam in Ontario— my insurance covers one (up to like $200 or something) every two years, so that's about the cadence I get them on. So it's a paid-for thing; I don't feel bad about taking the prescription and buying glasses online. That said, the glasses from the shop last way, way longer than the online ones, so I really just use online for sunglasses or like to get novelty frames…

I'm in Ontario, too, and couldn't get my PD from Laurier Optical. So I left, went on Amazon, and bought a PD Distance Measurer for a couple of hundred bucks. Did my whole family, and now my wife feels better about ordering from Zeni. Saved enough on a single pair of glasses to pay for the meter.