Abstract:
Eyewear for wearing on a person&#39;s head, the eyewear having a lens section for positioning in front of the wearer&#39;s eyes, wherein part of the lens section allows viewable light to pass through and part of the lens section blocks viewable light from passing through thereby focusing the wearer&#39;s attention away from regions of a viewed person.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    The present disclosure relates to eyewear. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0002]    According to an example embodiment, there is provided eyewear for wearing on a person&#39;s head, the eyewear having a lens section for positioning in front of the wearer&#39;s eyes, wherein part of the lens section allows viewable light to pass through and part of the lens section blocks viewable light from passing through thereby focusing the wearer&#39;s attention away from regions of a viewed person. 
         [0003]    According to another example embodiment there is provided glasses for wearing on a person&#39;s head, the glasses having right and left lenses for positioning in front of the wearer&#39;s left and right eyes respectively, each lens having an upper region through which viewable light can pass to be viewed by the wearer and a lower region blocking viewable light. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
         [0004]      FIG. 1  shows a representation of a person viewed normally; 
           [0005]      FIG. 2  is a front perspective view of eyewear according to an example embodiment; and 
           [0006]      FIG. 3  is a representation of a person viewed through the eyewear of  FIG. 2 . 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0007]    When engaged in a conversation, maintaining visual contact with the face and eyes of the other person is generally considered a positive behaviour and allows one to focus on what the other person is saying as well as pick up on important non-verbal facial communications from the other person. Unfortunately, perhaps as a result of evolution and/or as a result of being subjected to repeated images in the mass media, as many as fifty percent of the human population at least some time during their lives may have at least a subconscious urge to divert their visual attention from the facial region of the person they are in conversation with to other regions of that person&#39;s body. By way of example,  FIG. 1  illustrates a person as viewed during a conversation from the perspective of a viewing person. Maintaining eye contact with the facial region  10  of such person is generally encouraged behaviour, while diverting vision to lower regions of such person such as the chest region  12  can be distracting and embarrassing for both people in the conversation. 
         [0008]      FIG. 2  illustrates eyewear  20  for at least partially addressing the problem identified above. Eyewear  20  is similar to conventional eyewear or glasses in that it includes a forward facing lens section  22  from which two spaced-apart arms  32  extend in a rearward direction. The lens section  22  includes a nose region  36  for resting on a wearer&#39;s nose while the spaced-apart arms  32  engage the ears of the wearer and/or the opposite sides of the wearer&#39;s head. The arms  32  may be attached to the lens section  22  by hinges to fold for storage, or may be fixed in place. The lens section  22  includes left lens  26  for positioning in front of the wearer&#39;s left eye and right lens  24  for positioning in front of the wearer&#39;s right eye. Left and right lens  26 ,  24  may for example be made from plastic or glass. The lens section  22  may include an outer frame  34  formed from plastic or metal or other material for containing the left lens  26  and right lens  24 , to which the arms  32  may be connected. However, in at least some examples, the lens section  22  is frameless with the left lens  26  and right lens  24  being formed from a unitary piece of plastic material. 
         [0009]    As can be seen in  FIG. 2 , in an example embodiment each of the lenses  24 ,  26  has an upper region  38  and a lower region  40 . The upper region  38  of each lens allows viewable light to pass through—for example, the upper region could be completely transparent, translucent or tinted, or mirrored on the external surface, and/or could be configured to provide a corrective prescription. The lower region  40  of each lens, however, is opaque and in this regard is blackened or coloured or otherwise shaded to substantially block any visible light from passing therethrough. In some example embodiments, where “H” indicates the maximum height of each lens  24 ,  26 , the height of lower region  40  is at least one-third to one-half the maximum lens height “H”. Accordingly, in the illustrated embodiment the upper region  38  that passes viewable light extends from a top distal edge of the lens  24 ,  26  to terminate at the lower region  40  that blocks viewable light, with the lower region  40  extending from the upper region  38  to the lower distal edge. 
         [0010]    In some example embodiments, the light blocking lower region  40  may not extend across the entire lower region of each lens  24 ,  26 , but rather could just extend across a central lower region. In at least some example embodiments, light blocking region  40  is located on lenses  24 ,  26  in the same areas in which the “near vision enhancing” portion of bifocals would normally be positioned on eyewear, and accordingly eyewear such as that shown in  FIG. 2  has been named as “manfocals”™ by the inventor hereof. 
         [0011]      FIG. 3  schematically illustrates a view, from the perspective of a wearer of the eyewear of  FIG. 2 , of another person. As can be seen in  FIG. 3 , the light blocking lower regions  40  of lenses  24 ,  26  result in at least partial visual blocking  30  of the lower portion of the viewed person. As a result, the wearer&#39;s vision is focussed on the facial region  10  of the viewed person and in at least some situations, the wearer is less likely to get distracted during conversation and more likely to listen to what is being said and pay attention to non-verbal facial expressions. Embarrassment and/or miscommunications between parties may be reduced in at least some situations. 
         [0012]    In some example embodiments, the upper and lower regions of the lens  24 ,  26  could be reversed so that the lower region is transparent and the upper region is opaque. Such a configuration could be useful in situations where the viewed person has a bad or otherwise distracting hair-style, or no hair, so that the wearer&#39;s attention is focussed lower on the viewed person&#39;s face than the viewed person&#39;s hairline. 
         [0013]    It will be appreciated that example embodiments have been described above, however many different embodiments of manfocals™ are possible.