Pilkington have now made something that they call Activ™[see link]. It's a glass that has a special coating that photocatalyses the dirt and then is hydrophillic enabling better rinsing and drying.

You can already get this coating on commerical and domestic windows and it apparently has very little effect on the refractive index of the glass so would be suitable to be applied to glass spectacle lenses.

The hydrophillic qualities would make it better when one's glasses get rained on as you wouldn't be left with those spots as the water dries.
-- oneoffdave, Dec 24 2002

Pilkington Activ http://www.activgla...ges/aboutframe.html
All about Activ [oneoffdave, Oct 04 2004, last modified Nov 05 2007]

Hydrophillic? Refractive index? I thought that you were just going to put a little arm on the side of the frames that wipes your lenses dry with a cloth and then gives you the thumbs up before disappearing back into it's housing.
-- DrBob, Dec 24 2002


Would this whistle cheerily [DrBob]?
-- oneoffdave, Dec 24 2002


I should certainly hope so.
-- DrBob, Dec 24 2002


Or glasses whose lenses sharply expand by a couple of millimetres and contract to their original state occasionally, flinging water, dirt and other particulate matter off the surface (though hopefully not into your eye).
-- friendlyfire, Dec 24 2002


As a spec wearer, I say: bring it on!
-- snarfyguy, Dec 24 2002


Those spots arn't water, so they wouldn't respond to any hydrophyllic qualities of the glass. They are mineral or nutrient deposits. Plenty of particulate matter in the atmosphere.
-- ImBack, Dec 24 2002


[ImBack] The hydrophillic qualities relate to how the glass dries once it has been wetted. The other particulates are dealt with by the photocatalyst.
-- oneoffdave, Jan 02 2003



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