Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Beer goggle correctors

Beer glasses: optically shocking
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I'm looking through the base of one now at the delightful barmaids of the local hostelry (The Star Inn, Bentley).

Frankly, I can't see a thing and this has got to change.

I need a corrective lens fitted over the bottom of my current beer glass so I can see. This has been done in space so it should be easy on Earth.

I propose a smartphone application that photographs a test pattern through the bottom of the glass and conveys this, using the Internet of course, to a team of skilled optical scientists to grind away and produce the perfect corrective lens in under 20 minutes.

A throbbing sports car roars the result to the pub where it can be fitted by suitably trained astronauts to the correct glass.

Now it's clear - mine's another pint.

DenholmRicshaw, Apr 01 2012

Beer spy glass
[xaviergisz, Apr 01 2012]

Turn Frosted Glass Transparent With A Piece Of Clear Tape http://www.lifehack...iece-of-clear-tape/
Frosted glass is essentially glass with many tiny imperfections. As a result, sticking some Scotch or other clear tape over it will fill in those imperfections, while keeping the outer surface of the tape flat—thus letting all the light shine through instead of refracting off all those imperfections. [xaviergisz, Apr 02 2012]

[link]






       Why implement it in hardware? Given the variety of glasses in use, this will soon become expensive.   

       Better, shirley, to do it entirely in software. Once the test pattern has been imaged, simply duct- tape your iPhone to the base of your beer glass (on the outside, that is; and with the screen upwards). Then, the phone's camera will collect the image, and the screen will display a counter- distorted version which will appear normal when viewed through said beer glass bottom.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 01 2012
  

       Incidentally, you're not far from where I grew up.   

       OK, "grew up" is used only in the chronological sense.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 01 2012
  

       MB - a most cunning plan to be sure - there's an app in that for seeing through frosted glass...   

       but...   

       I'm not sure those Astronomer chaps would have put up with an iPhone duct taped to the front of the Hubble. Frankly, I want astronomical grade glass and I'm prepared to pay astronomically.
DenholmRicshaw, Apr 01 2012
  

       //Wasn't the hubble fix entirely software ?// Yes, it was done by the same people who faked the moon landing.
mouseposture, Apr 01 2012
  

       //warts, humps and puss filled sores// Even kittens would imply a pretty big sore.
pocmloc, Apr 01 2012
  

       //there's an app in that for seeing through frosted glass... // I am sure that is here somewhere, but I cannae find it.
MaxwellBuchanan, Apr 01 2012
  

       //there's an app in that for seeing through frosted glass... //   

       I suspect that's not possible...but I've been wrong before...it's kind of nature's steganography.
not_morrison_rm, Apr 02 2012
  

       Good point - maybe not frosted glass but perhaps patterned glass. I remember Magnus Pike applying something like golden syrup and something like cling film to glass to enable it to be seen through.
DenholmRicshaw, Apr 02 2012
  

       In an Information Theory sense, the bottom of the beer glass does two things. It transforms the image, but it is also 'lossy' - i.e. it removes information from the image. The image does not contain redundant data or error-correction codes like many data formats, so the data is truly lost and no corrective lens will recover the data. The problem is in many ways similar to the (purely hypothetical, you understand...) challenge of constructing an image of an attractive member of the opposite sex showering based on the view through a bathroom window made from patterned, textured glass. The glass transforms the image but also removes data from the image, so no reverse transformation will reconstruct the image.
hippo, Apr 02 2012
  

       //I need a corrective lens fitted over the bottom of my current beer glass so I can see. This has been done in space so it should be easy on Earth.//
I think the Apollo 8 astronauts had some brandy to celebrate Christmas, and Buzz Aldrin famously had his communion wine, but I've never heard of beer in space.
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Apr 02 2012
  

       // I've never heard of beer in space //   

       It is not spoken of. But, well, that asteroid belt your system has between the fourth and fifth planets ? There are some things you REALLY shouldn't do after a few beers ...
8th of 7, Apr 02 2012
  

       //Good point - maybe not frosted glass but perhaps patterned glass. I remember Magnus Pike applying something like golden syrup and something like cling film to glass to enable it to be seen through.//   

       Oh, that's do-able, but only if you put it in the frosted side, and presumably most window installers know which way to put it for bathrooms. Saying that, some double-glazed window installers were putting windows in with the removable strip on the outside of the building, so burglars could easily remove the strip and pull out the whole pane of glass...
not_morrison_rm, Apr 03 2012
  

       I checked a beer glass I happen to have and the inside is quite smooth albeit concave whereas the outside is somewhat rougher.   

       So I need to stand the glass in some of that quick hardening but transparent plasticy-resin stuff and arrange for a convex bulge to compensate for the concavity inside the glass. It might work altough different refractive indices may need to be considered.   

       Also the resultant glass and lens combination would not have a flat bottom so you could never put the glass down.
DenholmRicshaw, Apr 03 2012
  

       You could if you crowned the base, thus making the lens recessed.
Alterother, Apr 03 2012
  

       Yes - although it'll no longer have the comedic properties of a glass that can't stand up.   

       It'll need a lens cap to protect it.   

       This is getting out of hand.
DenholmRicshaw, Apr 04 2012
  
      
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