Sunglasses
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Wikipedia-Article "Sunglasses"
Sunglasses are a visual aid, variously termed spectacles or glasses, which feature lenses that are coloured or darkened to screen out strong light from the eyes.
Many people find direct sunlight too bright to be comfortable, especially when reading from paper on which the sun directly shines. In outdoor activities like skiing and flying, the eye can receive more light than usual. It has been recommended to wear these kind of glasses on sunny days to protect the eyes from ultraviolet radiation, which can lead to the development of a cataract. Sunglasses have also been associated with celebrities and film actors primarily due to the desire to mask identity, but in part due to the lighting involved in production being typically stronger than natural light and uncomfortable to the naked eye.
From the 1950s to the 1990s sunglasses were popular as a fashion statement.
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Uses
Hiding one's eyes has implications in face-to-face communication: It can hide weeping, being one of the signs of mourning, makes eye contact impossible which can be intimidating, as in the stereotype of the guardian of a chain gang, or can show detachedness, which is considered cool in some circles. Many cultures do not take them kindly. Darkened sunglasses of particular shapes may be in vogue as a fashion accessory. Note that normal glasses are very rarely worn without a practical purpose. Curiously, they can project an image of uncool nerdiness that sunglasses do not have. The impact on nonverbal communication and the cool image can be the reasons for wearing sunglasses by night or indoors. People also wear sunglasses when they don't want others to see that they're high by looking at their bloodshot eyes.
Comfort
Eyeglasses improve visual comfort. Various types of disposable sunglasses are dispensed to patients after receiving mydriatic eye drops during eye examinations.
Protection
It is important that the makers of one's sunglasses ensure that the glasses protect against UV (ultraviolet) rays. In the European Union, a CE mark (
) identifies glasses fulfilling quality regulations. In the preparation for solar eclipses, health authorities often warn against looking at the sun through only sunglasses.
Construction
Lens
The color of the lens can vary by style, fashion, and purpose, but for general use, green, grey, or brown is recommended to avoid or minimize color distortion, that could be dangerous when, for instance, driving a car. Grey lenses are considered neutral because they do not enhance contrast or distort colors. Brown and green lenses cause some minimal color distortion, but have contrast-enhancing properties. Red lenses are good for medium and lower light conditions because they are good at enhancing contrast but causes color distortion. Orange and yellow lenses have the best contrast enhancement and depth perception but cause color distortion. Yellow lenses are commonly used by golfers and shooters for its contrast enhancement and depth perception properties. Blue and purple lenses offer no real benefits and are mainly cosmetic. Clear lenses are used typically to protect the eyes from impact, debris, dust, or chemicals. Some sunglasses with interchangeable lens have optional clear lenses to protect the eyes during low light or night time activities.
Some models have polarized lenses to reduce glare caused by light reflected from polarizing surfaces such as water as well as by polarized diffuse sky radiation (skylight).
Some models use a degradation where the top of the glass (through which the sky is looked at) is darker and the bottom is transparent.
A mirrored coating can also be applied to the lens. This mirrored coating reflects some of the light when it hits the lens before it is transmitted through the lens making it useful in bright conditions. These mirrored coatings can be made any color by the manufacturer for styling and fashion purposes. The color of the mirrored surface is irrelevant to the color of the lens. For example, a gray lens can have a blue mirror coating, and a brown lens can have a silver coating. These type of sunglasses are sometimes called mirrorshades.
The manufacturer, any of the above features: color, polarization, degradation, and mirroring, can be combined into a set of lenses for a pair of sunglasses.
With the introduction of office computing, ergonomists can recommend mildly tinted glasses for display operators to increase contrast.
Corrective lenses can be darkened to serve the same purpose, or secondary clip-on dark lenses can be placed in front of the regular lenses.
Some lenses gradually darken with bright light and lighten in darkness. These are known as photochromic lenses. People with severe visual impairment, such as the blind, often wear sunglasses so they do not make others uncomfortable with the fact that they cannot make eye contact with them (not seeing eyes may be better than seeing eyes which seem to look in the wrong direction), or to hide the eyes if their appearance is abnormal, for example due to cataracts.
Before the introduction of sunglasses, one-eyed people could wear an eyepatch to not disturb other people. Some people who are severely visually impaired but still sighted wear sunglasses in order to protect their vision against glare.
Lenses are typically made from one of four materials. They include glass, plastic (usually acrylic), polycarbonate, and CR-39. Glass lenses have the best optical clarity and scratch resistance, but are heavier than plastic or polycarbonate lenses. They can also shatter or break on impact. Plastic lenses are lighter than glass lenses, but are more prone to scratching. They do however, offer more resistance to shattering than glass. Polycarbonate lenses are even lighter than plastic lenses. They are shatter-resistant (but not unbreakable) making them good for impact protection. CR-39 lenses are the most common plastic lenses, due to their low weight, high scratch resistance, low transparency for ultraviolet and infrared radiation, and other advantageous properties.
Frames
Frames are generally made from plastic, nylon, a metal or metal alloy. Nylon frames are usually used in sports because they are light weight and flexible. They are able to bend slightly instead of breaking when pressure is applied to them. This flex can also help the glasses grip better on the wearer's face. Metal frames are usually more rigid than nylon frames thus they can be more easily damaged when participating in sporty activities, but this is not to say that they cannot be used for such activities. Because metal frames are more rigid, some models have spring loaded hinges to help them grip the wearer's face better. The end of the ear pieces and the bridge over the nose can be textured or have a rubber or plastic material to hold better. The end of the ear pieces are usually curved so that they wrap around the ear; however, some models have straight ear pieces. Oakley, for example, has straight ear pieces on all their glasses.
Frames can be made to hold the lenses in several different ways. There are three common styles: full frame, half frame, and frameless. Full frame glasses have the frame go all around the lenses. Half frames go around only half the lens, typically the frames attach to the top of the lenses and on the side near the top. Frameless glasses have no frame around the lenses and the ear stems are attached directly to the lenses. There are two styles of frameless glasses, those that have a piece of frame material connecting the two lenses together, and those that are a single lens with ear stems on each side.
Some sports oriented sunglasses have interchangeable lens options. Lenses can be easily removed and swapped with a different lens, usually a different colored lens. The purpose of this is to allow the wearer to easily change lenses when light conditions or activities change. The reason for this is because the cost of a set of lenses is less than the cost of a separate pair of glasses and carrying extra lenses is less bulky than carrying multiple pairs of glasses. It also allows easy replacement of a set of lenses if they are damaged. The most common type of sunglasses with interchangable lenses have a single lens or shield that covers both eyes. Styles that use two lenses also exist, but less common.
Fashion
Onassis glasses
Onassis glasses are very large sunglasses worn by women. This style of sunglasses is said to mimic the kind most famously worn by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. While originally worn by Onassis in the 1960's, the glasses eventually became popular with younger American girls around the year 2000.
Mirrorshades
Mirrorshades are sunglasses with a mirrored coating on the surface. Their popularity with police officers in the United States has earned them the nickname "cop shades".
History
It is said that the Roman emperor Nero liked to watch gladiator fights through polished gems. Sunglasses were first used in China in the 12th century or possibly earlier. The "lenses" of these glasses were flat panes of smoky quartz, which offered no corrective powers but did protect the eyes from glare. Contemporary documents describe the use of such glasses by judges in Chinese courts to conceal their facial expressions while questioning witnesses. Compare the representation of "blind Justice" in Western art.
James Ayscough began experimenting with tinted lenses in spectacles in the mid-18th century. These were not "sunglasses" as such; Ayscough believed blue- or green-tinted glass could correct for specific vision impairments. Protection from the sun's rays was not a concern of his.
Sunglasses as such were introduced by Sam Foster in 1929. Foster found a ready market on the beaches of Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he began selling Foster Grants from a Woolworth on the Boardwalk.
Sunglasses would not become polarized, however, until 1936, when Edwin H. Land began experimenting with making lenses with his patented Polaroid filter.
In 2004, Oakley developed Thump, sunglasses with built-in digital audio player.
Other names for sunglasses
There are also various words referring to eyepieces with darkened lenses:
- Sun spectacles is a term used by some opticians.
- Spekkies is a term used predominantly in southern Australia.
- Sun specs (also sunspecs) is the shortened form of the above term.
- Sunglasses is a term in common usage in Britain and North America, and it is also used when preceded by "pair of".
- Sun-shades can also refer to the sun-shading eyepiece-type, although the term is not exclusive to these. Also in use is the derivative abbreviation, shades.
- Dark glasses (also preceded by 'pair of') - generic term in common usage.
- Sunnies is Australian slang.
- Smoked Spectacles usually refers to the darkened eyepieces worn by blind people.
Some celebrities predominantly seen wearing sunglasses
Some celebrities are predominantly seen in public wearing sunglasses, even indoors. These people include:
- Jack Nicholson, actor
- Howard Stern, shock jock
- Pedro Abrunhosa, Portuguese singer
- Robert Ashley, American composer
- Richard Belzer comedian and actor
- Bono, singer of U2
- Ray Charles, blind musician, now deceased.
- Jose Feliciano, blind musician
- Enzo Ferrari, Italian automotive pioneer
- Heino, German singer
- Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish chief of state
- Elton John, in unusual tints
- Umm Kalthum, Egyptian singer, now deceased
- Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, widow of John F. Kennedy
- Ric Ocasek - musician and producer
- Yoko Ono, Japanese artist and John Lennon's wife
- Roy Orbison, singer
- Paul Shaffer - bandleader
- Masayuki Suzuki, Japanese singer of Rats & Star
- Andy Warhol, artist
- Hank Williams, Jr. - country music singer
- Stevie Wonder, blind musician
- Richard Petty, NASCAR legend
- Lenny Kravitz, Singer/Entertainer
- Hunter S. Thompson, journalist, deceased
- Liam Gallagher, Oasis, singer
- Noel Gallagher, Oasis, Lead Guitarist, Songwriter
Some fictional characters predominantly seen wearing sunglasses
Some fictional characters are predominantly depicted as wearing sunglasses. These include:
- Blade (comics), A fictional Marvel Comics comic-book character about a vampire-hunter.Blade (comics) has been turned in a series of 3 films.
- John Munch, Detective in Homicide: Life on the Street,Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (played by Richard Belzer, see above)
- The Blues Brothers, musicians
- The reporter crew of the Argentinian and Spanish shows Caiga Quien Caiga
- Max Headroom - 1980s "computer generated" celebrity
- Cyclops, from the X-Men - wears sunglasses when he is not in costume with his visor
- Matt Murdock, blind lawyer from "Daredevil"
- The Men in Black and the Men in Black of urban legend.
- Most characters from The Matrix movie. Interestingly, all of the protagonists wear rounded lenses, while the antagonists wear rectangular lenses.
- The crew from Reservoir Dogs.
- Most of the mafia members from the anime Gungrave
- Albert Wesker from the video game Resident Evil.
- Clifford, a Muppet character
- The Energizer Bunny
- Anthony Crowley, from the novel Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
- Gendo Ikari, from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Rude, a member of the Turks from Final Fantasy VII.
- The mirrored aviator sunglasses of the silent boss figure prominently in the plot of Cool Hand Luke.
- Steven Hyde's red aviator sunglasses from That '70s Show.
- Johnny and Bunny Bravo from Johnny Bravo.
- Jimmy from WarioWare, Inc.