Permanent anti-fog coating could mean end to steamy specs

Unless you’re blind, or just plain out of the loop, you’ve probably noticed a proliferation of folks rocking spectacles as accessories of late, but for those of us who wear the things out of necessity, there’s no taking ‘em off when our lenses fog up. Lucky for us, a team of Canadian researchers have patented a new permanent anti-fog coating that they claim is the first of its kind. To make sure the stuff wouldn’t wash away, the crew applied four successive layers of molecules to a transparent material (either glass or plastic) before overlaying it with polyvinyl alcohol , allowing water to spread uniformly and avoiding the steamy-windows effect. The result? A super durable, multilayer coating that won’t rub off, regardless of the freakish conditions you and your face encounter. Its creators see endless applications for their invention, including windshields, visors, camera lenses, and, of course, eyewear. Now that that’s out of the way, we suggest they concentrate their efforts on sweat-less nose pads. Permanent anti-fog coating could mean end to steamy specs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 20 Mar 2011 04:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on March 20, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.