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Have you thought of how expensive eyeglasses costs? And how many people are in need to have one in order to correct their vision? Or have you thought of how many people there are in the world in need for an eye check-up and with only few eye specialists? How could the world possibly address this case? Someone just found the perfect solution for those whose eyesight needs correcting without the need of seeing an optometrist or ophthalmologist. All that’s needed is technology that would lead to these new discoveries.

University of Oxford physics professor Joshua Silver developed an affordable solution for those who can’t afford to see an eye specialist or a pair of glasses. Silver developed self-refractive glasses. The glasses “consists of a clear membranes filled with silicon oil.” The user can have full control of the amount of liquid on the lenses depending on the need for correct eyesight. A dial is attached to a syringe filled with the silicon oil. The amount of oil in the lenses changes the glasses curvature. Once the amount of oil already suits their vision, it can then be sealed with the valve. Instantly, one would have a pair of glasses that would help correct their eyesight without even visiting or seeing an optometrist.

Although this new invention has its limitations, like it can’t correct astigmatism and it’s not proven to work on children, but it has made a decent percentage of success. The glasses were known to have correct the vision of 80% of the people who used it.

With further development needed and the bigger problem on distribution, Silver sees that the invention still has a long way to go. The glasses are less fashionable and they are still in the process to make the lenses suitable for everyone’s use. Also, Silver saw a problem on budget and distribution and said he can’t do it alone.

Setting aside all the walls that could possibly bar to helping millions of people, Silver keeps a positive outlook that the discovery of self-refractive lenses is just a start.

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It’s not something shocking if avid readers would prefer e-books over the traditional books. Aside from its convenience, the availability and affordability might have made the magic for e-books.

E-books are made to be convenient and easier to use to most users than the usual books printed. According to a Pennsylvania-based writer Paul Jessup that an e-book’s search function is “10 times better than flipping and looking and searching” on his own. The light emitting diode screens used in netbook computers are smartphones made e-books easily readable. And recently, more and more companies are producing their e-book devices, e-store for books, and e-reader applications.

The growth of e-book users have brought companies to making improved versions of devices and applications making it available to almost everyone. Director of the Flexible Display Center in Arizona State University Nick Colaneri said that low-power, reflective e-papers are expected to hit the market next year.

Kindle connects wirelessly to Amazon’s online store while Barnes & Noble launched their own e-store and e-reader application. Sony announced its e-book reader, Reader Daily Edition, with built-in wireless capability, and Apple on the other hand is rumored to be working on a wireless tablet device that would be better than reading an e-book through an iPhone.

With all the technological advancements, software companies have also went a notch higher when it comes to developing programs and software that would cater to the many e-book enthusiasts there is.

Also, e-books can be affordable. Gadgets may cost more than your ordinary book but it is already an investment. Once you got that gadget in your hands, you can easily download some e-books for free or buy them for a lower cost. The savings you’ll get from there would just sum up to the cost in buying the gadget. Plus, it minimizes the hassle of going to the nearest bookstore, looking up for the book you like and, sometimes, lining up for them.

Although the e-book industry has not come out that strong yet, people believe that pretty soon, sales of e-books and e-book devices would soon rise. Time would come that much and much more people would prefer to have e-books than ordinary books.

NOTE: All facts in this article is based on the article “E-books catching on with readers” by David Dritsas (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/14/ebooks.ereaders/index.html).

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Google’s plan on digitalizing books has set a debate over public libraries, authors, and other websites selling books online. True enough, the world has evolved and everything is going online. People these days are more comfortable getting information online than visiting the nearest public libraries. But do we really need to sweep of the traditional libraries – books and librarians included?

They said the traditional would never fade, or probably it will but it would take a lot more time to do so. With this move by Google, librarians feel like having a public library would seem pointless. Readers, especially the young, would always prefer the convenience of getting resource materials and information through the internet.

The advantage of having this online library though is that information is more accessible and reachable to more people who would want and need information. Some aired out their concerns that only the privileged ones who can afford to attend college and the ones only they can access most books and the information containing these books.

But some public libraries are diving into evolution but not totally eradicating the traditional books. Some public libraries are incorporating social networking, blogging, entertainment, and other technological stuff in their library to learn and gather information in both the traditional and revolutionized manner. They also considered libraries as more than being just books – the place could also serve as a place where people would meet, discuss or debate matters about the information they have gathered. Still, through this, public libraries wouldn’t totally diminish and would still have its purpose to the public.

Understanding technology, what Google proposed is merely a matter of debate of evolution over tradition. It would all depend on how the people would see it, and how would they soon adapt to this proposed online library.

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Things have gone wireless over the years that technology has evolved. There’s wireless communication: radios, cellular phones, telephone sets, and beepers. Computer peripherals like keyboards, printers, and mice even have wireless versions. There are also wireless security systems, gaming systems, remote controls, and, recently, wireless internet.

Almost everything around is becoming wireless, and soon, there will be a point in time that EVERYTHING would indeed be wireless. Impossible yet predictable. If everything, then, would soon be wireless, why not count electricity in?

According to Eric Giler, CEO of WiTricty,it is possible in the future that all electronic devices wouldn’t need wires to operate. This wireless electricity converts power into a magnetic field and sends it through a magnetic field at a certain frequency. With this, there would be less hassle in untangling power cords and a lesser need for disposable batteries which, according to Giler, are huge energy wasting factor.

Foreseeing this wireless technology, Giler believed that it would make electric cars more attractive to consumers. The thought that they don’t need to “plug-in” their cars anymore and just drive into a garage with a wireless power mat would make it easier. Plus, electric cars save the environment and would surely save huge budget.

Although the wireless electricity has been tested and some are even sold in the market, but still with limitations. Researchers have been trying to try sending electric waves in far distances but in very small amounts, while it can send a large amount of electric energy but only to near distances.

The only thing left now, aside from further research and future implementations, is to educate the people on how these things work and the idea of it. And probably, people would be more enticed to using wireless electricity than having tangled wires around their homes.

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Portraits made by professional artists cost much. There is much time and effort exerted in one portrait that makes its worth more than what you earn in a month. But the fast advancing technology never failed to meet the needs and expectations of its consumers. Somehow, technology found a way to make portraits easily accessible and a bit cheaper.

Lately, a lot of artists have now been doing portraits of people through social networking sites. Gone are the days when portraits were only for the rich and the famous.

Some artists, literally do the portraits only that they do it by requests from people in social networking sites (Facebook for example). New York artist Matt Held has a fan page in Facebook where he gets requests from people to make a portrait out of their profile photo. The images in he painted can be used by people online for free, yet he sells them in galleries for more than a thousand dollars. In this example, although his images are free online, his fan page and the people who uses his images can do the marketing for him that might earn him some bucks.

Other than real portraits, some people use automated programs, websites or website applications that would easily provide them a portrait of themselves – either posterized or sketched. This would allow users to now have a “virtual” portrait of themselves, ready-to-use, and without the expensive cost.

With social networking sites swarming all over the internet, people tend to take advantage of the people’s need of a more improved replica of themselves that they can show off to the people. And as technology advancing, you can never blame for the people to ask for more each day. Probably, by this day onward, we should be expecting much more to come.