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Description: Adspecs oil-filled eyeglasses: A vision for the emerging world According to the Centre’s website, the need for eyecare in emerging countries is stark: In the UK, there is 1 optometrist for every 8,000 people. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it’s 1:1,000,000. So far, more than 30,000 pairs of Adspecs have been deployed worldwide, and Professor Silver has an ambitious vision for the future—one billion people to get the glasses they need but lack access to by 2020. Another pressing goal for Silver and the Centre is to dramatically lower the cost of producing the eyeglasses. Right now one pair costs around $20 to produce, and the project must rely on donations to offset these costs. Silver wants to get the cost down to $1 a pair. There’s no clear plan yet for bringing down the cost, but Silver is optimistic: “Work is going on on several new designs, and further work will be required to get the costs down. The truth is that there is, at the moment, no device that can be made for a dollar in volumes of 100 million. But I am entirely confident that we can do that.”