foto: Peter Strelitski
foto's: Philips DAP, U-Specs, Lucy Lambriex
Illustration: Dietwee ontwerpers
Universal Spectacles
Worldwide over 500 million people have poor eyesight due to uncorrected eye defects. The consequences of this are huge. Many people go blind and end up living in poverty. Attending school is difficult or not possible at all. The solution is a pair of glasses. But where do you get glasses, with the correct strength, when you have hardly any money?
Universal spectacles have now been developed for people living at the base of the economic pyramid. Glasses which people can adjust themselves without the help of an optician, ranging from 0 to minus 3 and minus 3 to minus 6. A third prototype will be developed with a range from 0 to plus 3. Glasses which, because of mass production, can be sold for only a couple of Euros. Glasses that can help people with poor eyesight by improving their social position and giving them easier access to education and jobs. Spectacles with a vision!
Background
“Ban most visual handicaps before 2020.” That is the goal of Vision 2020, a campaign set up by the World Health Organisation (WHO). U-specs can make a substantial contribution to this goal.
Goals
- To provide underprivileged and visually impaired children in developing countries with a pair of glasses which they can adjust themselves, at a very low price (and in the second phase also adults).
- Stimulate the economy in developing countries by local production, assembly and distribution of adjustable glasses.
- Improve local entrepreneurship by letting small entrepreneurs buy and sell these glasses, if necessary by means of micro credit.
- Function as a proof of concept for the theoretical principle of the ‘base of the pyramid’.
Partners
VU-mc
The idea for Universal glasses came about in 2003 at the VU medical centre in Amsterdam. The concept was worked out under the supervision of Rob van der Heijde from the department of Physics and Medical Technology. Since March 2005 VUmc and d.o.b foundation have been working together to research ways of making the u-specs suitable for mass production and local distribution.
VU medical centre carries out research and tries to find solutions for issues that are of importance to the hospital and society as such. The research is focused on the increase of knowledge (fundamental research) and the use of this knowledge in health care (strategic and applied research).
The principle of the U-specs is based on a invention by the American Luis W. Alvarez. He discovered that the refractive strength of the lens can be adjusted by shifting the two parts of the lenses.
Read more about the glasses and the VUmc.
Philips DAP
Philips Domestic Appliances and Personal Care (DAP) employs about 8.200 people. It has production facilities in 7 countries and over 60 sales organizations in various countries across the world.
For Philips, sustainable development is necessary and useful: an investment that creates value and a guarantee for the future.
Read more about Philips.
Other partners
HTPTooling
Pezy Development
Optical Diagnostics
Sustainability
With the U-specs project we want to contribute to local sustainable development. We therefore value the fact that production and assembly takes place in developing countries. With the profit from the first spectacles we aim to expand the reach of the project.
Results so far
A team of driven professionals has worked on:
- spectacles that can be taken into mass production
- a viable business plan
- finding strategic partners to work with.
The team consists of people from Vumc, d.o.b foundation and individual specialists (legal, marketing, financial, support).
- The first project phase was finalised at the end of June 2006.
- The three separate project results were delivered on 1 July 2006.
- In March 2006 a test took place in the Bangalore area in India, under the guidance of Philips DAP. The results from this test have been processed for the benefit of the commercial pilot.
- The surface of the lenses is free-form and after significant research and experimenting, also with experts from Essilor and Bayer, it turned out to be impossible to produce these glasses using conventional injection moulding methods. In December 2007 it was decided to split the range from 0 to minus 3 and minus 3 to minus 6. The lenses now being flatter make it possible to inject mould them. The first samples have been tested positively by VU Medical Centre and show a perfect optical quality. These results will lead to further developments of a third prototype of spectacles with a range from 0 to plus 3.
- User tests were carried out from July - September 2008 in three hospitals in India: Dr. Shroff's Hospital in Delhi, Dr. Salin's Hospital in Bidar and Sadguru in Madhya Pradesh. The optical and mechanical functionality of U-specs was tested on a sample size of 100 children with a control group of another 100 children.
Initiatives and plans
On 1 July 2006 VUmc handed over its immediate involvement to d.o.b foundation. For this particular project d.o.b foundation a separate foundation has been formed: Right on Sight. ROS will lead the commercial pilot that will be carried out by Sjoerd Hannema, project manager.
For the user acceptance tests and the commercial pilot U-specs will be working together with, among others, VisionSpring (formerly Scojo Foundation). The pilot will test consumer acceptance, pricing and distribution channels and is planned from October to December in India and Guatemala.
According to the selected business model 20.000 pairs of glasses will be sold. In this phase d.o.b will also be working together closely with Philips DAP and VisionSpring.
The board members of ROS are:
Tijn Folmer - Chairman
Bram de Wolf - Treasurer
Henk van Stokkom - Secretary
Tera Terpstra - (d.o.b)
Questions and obstructions
- Finding strategic partners in the field of production, distribution and investments, to continue working with.
- The biggest challenge is organising and creating a clear method of instructing the users which can be used worldwide, without an optician having to interfere.
- How can we profit the most from the existing distribution channels? Which channels are they? These can differ from region to region.
- How can we sell the glasses using market mechanism without the price rising at the cost of the people who need them?
Term
From March 2005 until a strategic partner or a company or foundation, still to be formed, takes the spectacles into mass production.I
Investment and donation
€ 248.000 invested (d.o.b foundation) upto 01-10-06.
€ 720.000 donation to Right on Sight.
More information
Read more about the theory of Stuart Hart and C.K. Prahalad:
base of the pyramid protocol
changemakers