A chemistry professor at the University of Connecticut is doing work with transition lenses for sunglasses that is getting the attention of the U.S. military, which is interested in his technology to make lenses change colors almost instantaneously, The Associated Press reports.
Most transition lenses use polymers that darken when light hits them. The new technology developed by Greg Sotzing and his colleagues uses an electric current that changes the lenses’ colors when triggered by light.
Military officials are interested because it could help soldiers avoid the need to change lenses in their goggles, such as when they emerge from indoors to blazing desert light.
Sotzing, a member of UConn Polymer Program, starts a one-year sabbatical next month at the Air Force Academy to work on the ideas.
