So here's the deal:
Circa 2012/2013, I'm playing paintball in a big scenario games called Fulda Gap out in Hickory, NC. It's a nice 20 degree morning and we want to go shoot each other in the woods like any normal adult male with a nervous tick. Game starts at 9AM - so we get out there and get in position... shortly after which everyone starts complaining that they couldn't see - not only could they not see the enemy - they couldn't see anything. Every lens out there was fogged up after our rush over to the point we were tasked to defend. At that point I told a strange man next to me that I was going to do something about this fogging issue.
Fast forward to today, a patent search and strategic analysis later... brings us to open eyewear!
I found that there are many avenues on how to prevent the air from condensing on your inner lens and obstructing your vision.
They are:
- increasing air flow
- increasing temperature of lens surface
- decreasing moisture in the air
Now everyone is likely to know about the increasing in air flow solution to defogging - or even re-routing the moist air that causes foggy glasses in the first place, but not many think of heating the inner lens surface.
There's a very clever couple of inventors by the name of Dom Skomsky and Valerie Palfy that have integrated a heating element and done some complex maths that got them an award from Nasa & recognition from Popular Science. However the only company that seems to be working with this is Abominable Labs in Portland, OR.
That's great for skiers/snowboarders + oil workers, but it leaves the rest of us out in the cold - with foggy goggles.
Solution? Free eyewear designs incorporating this technology! For anyone with the facilities to manufacture.
I started a website to host free eyewear designs here: openeyewear.org. There's nothing on there yet but it will come soon!