Forget Bifocals get these Liquid Crystal Auto-Focusing Glasses

Yup you read that right, these are auto-focusing glasses that are made from liquid crystal. They basically offer the same functionality as bifocals but without the distortion and without the near focus zone visible all the time. The glasses are able to manually or automatically generate a near focus zone by sending an electrical current through the glass changing the light refraction allowing uses to read and view close up objects more easily. The line of glasses are entitled Empower and are the brain child of Dr. Ronald Blum and his PixelOptics firm after more than a decade of research.

The Empower glasses feature a microchips, accelerometers and rechargeable batteries that make the magic happen. The glasses have two modes, manual and automatic. To activate the near focus zone manually you just touch the side of your glasses. To have the zone automatically generated for you simply slide your finger down the arm of the glasses and the automatic mode is activated. The Empower glasses use the accelerometer monitor your head movements and will generate the near focus zone when you look down.

These high tech glasses are surprisingly fashionable and will come in a wide variety of shapes and styles. They will be priced somewhere between $1000 and $1200 and are expected to hit the market in the Spring.

More information on Empower Optics