This Pair of Sunglasses Has Solar Cells for Lenses

Whether you wear glasses in order to correct your vision, or perhaps to shield your eyes from the bright sun, the lenses are constantly absorbing energy in the form of light. In order to make use of this resource, researchers from the Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT) have created a pair of glasses fitted with organic solar cells.

Each solar cell lens — which weighs about six grams and is roughly 1.6mm thick — is designed to fit into a set of commercial sunglass frames. This allows users see through the semi-transparent lenses, while generating 200 milliwatts of electric power under indoor conditions of 500 Lux, which is the usual illumination of any office or living area.

The current glasses contain a microprocessor and two displays to show the illumination intensity, along with the ambient temperature. Practical uses could include powering a step counter or hearing aids. Generally, this semi-transparent solar technology opens up many other applications as well, such as power provided by building windows.