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I've always followed the normal route--I have employer provided vision insurance, I would get myself tested every two years by a optometrist that my insurance c

I've always followed the normal route--I have employer provided vision insurance, I would get myself tested every two years by a optometrist that my insurance covered, and I would buy glass using the prescription from the optometrist or a glasses store supported by my insurance. I don't have anything special in my glasses--single focal, no tinting or light sensitivity, and my glasses weren't remotely stylish, and I'd pay ~$50-70 after insurance. I recently lost my glasses in a pond filled with alligators, so I wasn't going to try to retrieve them. I figured I needed cheap glasses until my insurance would cover me again. I had an old prescription but it was over a year old. I looked at Warby Parker, but they seem to require an actual prescription. So I tried Zenni Optical because all they need are the correction figures for each lens, they don't require an actual doctor signed document. Something I've always felt was weird--its not like prescription drugs, and I can decide if the glasses don't work, and a 18 month old prescription is better than no glasses. So $35 shipped for glasses and frames, and they had a lot that were cheaper. The seem to be very good quality, they seem to work better than lost pair (the prescription didn't have a pupillary distance, so I had to measure it. My eyes are pretty wide, and a lot of lenses can't accommodate my PD, so I wonder if the optometrist just figured close enough for lenses with a lower max PD.) Before this I had no idea how much markup was in the cost of a pair of glasses. Now I'll still get my eyes checked locally, but $30 glasses is better than what I can get locally even after my insurance.

Animats 8y ago
Here's a useful program someone in the HN/YC universe could write - something that uses your computer or phone camera to measure your interpupillary distance. This is a bit tricky to do yourself with a ruler and a mirror. Just have the user take a selfie while holding some object of known dimensions on their forehead. Like a dollar bill. Find the eyes and pupils (OpenCV can do that), find the reference object, calculate. Then take a picture of the prescription, OCR to the numbers (which will need a really good OCR program given the handwriting of many ophthalmologists), confirm the data with the user, and take the order for new glasses. Composite a selfie with pictures of glasses so you can see them on your face. Order from China, deliver via E-Packet, profit. Who needs Luxotica?
- walterbell 8y ago
  Some of these apps exist, but none are as accurate as a ruler and two post-it notes with a pinhole. If Apple opens up the depth sensor on the iPhone camera, such apps will be more accurate.
  - Animats 8y ago
    The trouble with do it yourself measurement of the distance between eyes is that it's done with eyes that need glasses, without wearing them. You need a second person or hardware.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
    - Scoundreller 8y ago
      I do it while wearing my contacts :)
    - abruzzi 8y ago
      In my case, my distance vision is bad, but a meter away is sharp without correction. In fact, I’ve never had a prescription that doesn’t f-up my near vision, so I had to do the measurement without glasses on.
- derefr 8y ago
  > something that uses your computer or phone camera to measure your interpupillary distance Presumably any program that does face recognition already has this capability somewhere inside it, and you just need to either extract it out (if FOSS) or trick the engine into doing just that one thing for you.
- rbavocadotree 8y ago
  The Warby Parker App already does a much better version of this. Open the front facing camera and any frame you want is super imposed in real time on your face. It works very well, on a newer iphone at least. You do have to enter your prescription details by hand though.
derefr 8y ago
> Something I've always felt was weird--its not like prescription drugs Perhaps they can get reimbursed by your insurance provider (without co-pay, so you don't necessarily even know about it) and/or the government, when they make glasses according to a prescription, in a way that they don't when they make them 100% for retail?
growlist 8y ago
> I recently lost my glasses in a pond filled with alligators I lost a pair of plastic glasses in the Colorado River in 1992 or so, crazy to think they are possibly reasonably intact somewhere in the Pacific Ocean :|

Animats 8y ago

Here's a useful program someone in the HN/YC universe could write - something that uses your computer or phone camera to measure your interpupillary distance. This is a bit tricky to do yourself with a ruler and a mirror. Just have the user take a selfie while holding some object of known dimensions on their forehead. Like a dollar bill. Find the eyes and pupils (OpenCV can do that), find the reference object, calculate. Then take a picture of the prescription, OCR to the numbers (which will need a really good OCR program given the handwriting of many ophthalmologists), confirm the data with the user, and take the order for new glasses. Composite a selfie with pictures of glasses so you can see them on your face. Order from China, deliver via E-Packet, profit. Who needs Luxotica?

walterbell 8y ago
Some of these apps exist, but none are as accurate as a ruler and two post-it notes with a pinhole. If Apple opens up the depth sensor on the iPhone camera, such apps will be more accurate.
- Animats 8y ago
  The trouble with do it yourself measurement of the distance between eyes is that it's done with eyes that need glasses, without wearing them. You need a second person or hardware.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    I do it while wearing my contacts :)
  - abruzzi 8y ago
    In my case, my distance vision is bad, but a meter away is sharp without correction. In fact, I’ve never had a prescription that doesn’t f-up my near vision, so I had to do the measurement without glasses on.
derefr 8y ago
> something that uses your computer or phone camera to measure your interpupillary distance Presumably any program that does face recognition already has this capability somewhere inside it, and you just need to either extract it out (if FOSS) or trick the engine into doing just that one thing for you.
rbavocadotree 8y ago
The Warby Parker App already does a much better version of this. Open the front facing camera and any frame you want is super imposed in real time on your face. It works very well, on a newer iphone at least. You do have to enter your prescription details by hand though.

derefr 8y ago

> Something I've always felt was weird--its not like prescription drugs Perhaps they can get reimbursed by your insurance provider (without co-pay, so you don't necessarily even know about it) and/or the government, when they make glasses according to a prescription, in a way that they don't when they make them 100% for retail?

growlist 8y ago

> I recently lost my glasses in a pond filled with alligators I lost a pair of plastic glasses in the Colorado River in 1992 or so, crazy to think they are possibly reasonably intact somewhere in the Pacific Ocean :|