Eye protection, also known as eye pro, is a crucial piece of gear that can save your eyes in the worst of situations. Military, police, hunters, marksmen, and many more use eye protection very often. The truth is, eye pro has come a very long way in quality and technological advance. However, just like all other technology this will continue to change and improve. So, where can we expect it to go in the next 10 years?
One thing that will surely advance is the ballistic property of lenses. For every company that produces protective lenses, safety is the number one priority. Also, in most cases, for everyone wearing ballistic lenses, safety is the number one priority. Ballistic lenses are currently advanced enough to protect from high velocity shrapnel. This can include shrapnel from grenades, other explosives, or even bullet shrapnel. However, ballistic lenses are not currently bullet proof. Although it is a far jump from shrapnel proof to bullet proof, this will surely be one of the technological focuses over the next 10 years.
Another things we will most likely see change is lens tinting and tint speed. Currently there are only two types of eyewear that can change tint. There is photochromic eyewear that change tint over a period of time in reaction to sunlight, and transitional eyewear that changes via button or in reaction to sunlight instantly. These two lenses solve a couple of problems. The first problem these solve is carrying multiple lenses. This problem does not affect everyone, but it does affect many military members. Soldiers are currently required to carry a tinted/tinting ballistic lens, and a clear ballistic lens. At the moment, this makes sense since most lenses aren’t capable of quickly changing tint or changing tint at all. However, there are already advances in technology at E-Tint that allow for one lens only that tints quickly and is fail-safe. Photochromic lenses can also be clear and dark but take much longer to change tint.
There will likely be advances in eye pro that we do not see coming. In fact, it is becoming so advanced today, that it is hard to imagine where we could go next. However, technology will surely become more advanced, especially when research and development teams are hard at work!
