A brief summary of the screens I’ve encountered today:
1) The one I wrote this on
2) My phone
3) A few thousand more that I passed between my home in New Jersey and my office near Times Square
You might not have to walk through Times Square on a Monday. But you’ve definitely experienced unwarranted screens today, from CNN at the barber shop to that very important man who sat down next to you on the train and started crafting Excel sheets … just as you were reaching the apex of a good mystery novel.
Here to head off that LED overload at the pass? IRL Glasses, currently funding on Kickstarter.
IRLs are the spiritual antithesis to the VR movement: they use an special film to block wavelengths of light emitted from LED and LCR screens. What does that mean? Throw on a pair, and most TVs and computers will turn black. Like magic. The glasses’ style actually takes cues from the 1998 film They Live, in which sunglasses are used to reveal the true meaning of billboards around Los Angeles.
This might seem a bit gratuitous. Can’t you just ignore the screens around you? Well … go try. We are already clinically addicted to our own screens; that litany of additional, random screens — adverts, coffee shop TVs, what have you — is tough to just brush off. But these specs might return some self control to commuters, readers and passersby, letting you “opt out” of 21st-century simulacra without having to barricade yourself in a dark bedroom.
N.b. They don’t yet block out smartphones, but future iterations might soon tackle that issue. Also: no driving with these things on. Head here and pledge $49 to claim a pair of your own IRL glasses (at a discount from the expected retail price of $79).
All images from IRL Glasses
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