Upside-down glasses

 by bofthem
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Here's a quick simple pattern for making glasses that turn your vision upside down. Although this could be cut by hand, it'd be nearly impossible. All of this was designed for the Instructables laser cutter. The only things you need for materials are 4-40 machine screws, standard washers, and 4-40 nuts, four of each. You'll also need a piece of mirrored plexiglass.

 
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Step 1: Download and laserize

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If you just want to get yourself a pair of perspective flipping goggles, all you have to do is download the file, arrange the parts to be cut (being sure to include two earpieces, they're identical, you know) and laser cut yourself a pair (mirror side down on the plastic, please.) It's pretty simple.

What those of you without laser cutters (poor souls that you are) may take away is this cool construction method I learned from puzzle maker Lee Krasnow. I measured my screws, nuts, and washers, and modeled them simply in cad. I measured the width of my plexiglass. Knowing those dimensions, I could make some tabs in the design. When the design is put together, the tabs keep the different panels aligned and square to one another. the screws fit down through the holes, and connect with the nuts in the adjacent panel. The nuts are held fixed by their tight fitting in the plastic. Putting these together is a breeze, really.
Adum24 says: Sep 24, 2011. 7:45 PM
Woah, the glassses are, like, upside down or something! ;) (JK LOL)
patriots8888 says: Jun 12, 2011. 6:29 PM
(: ǝsǝɥʇ
ɟo ǝuo ʇuɐʍ ı ¡ןooɔ
patriots8888 in reply to patriots8888Jun 13, 2011. 4:27 PM
woah what happened to my coment….
Cyberscann54 says: Jun 11, 2011. 7:13 PM
found the real deal for $30 at http://sciencekit.com/
Cr4zy_Dud3_0n_F1r3 says: Jun 10, 2011. 7:49 PM
Cool, saw something like this on Bones today, fascinating.
HisDivineShadow says: Oct 11, 2009. 5:08 PM
What is the point of removing vids?
it ticks me off...
old_bass_masta says: Feb 24, 2008. 10:38 PM
wear them constantly for 3 days and your vision will correct it by flippin it over
duck-lemon in reply to old_bass_mastaApr 6, 2008. 2:58 AM
ok i made and have been wearing for three days (much to my teachers delight) and my vision has not flipped over. you are a LIAR! LOL
Meie in reply to duck-lemonApr 26, 2009. 4:14 AM
yeah, i did it too :p and it didn't flip over as well :(
old_bass_masta in reply to duck-lemonApr 13, 2008. 8:12 AM
heh, maybe you are just weird! jks jks man. My dad told me that one. and some people's vision flipped
bujo0 in reply to old_bass_mastaSep 7, 2008. 4:01 PM
ya, if you were them constantly, like never take them off, for long enough your mind will flip the image in your head and you'll see normal. then when you take them off, everything will be upside down until your brain resets it. they did this as a psych experiment once. i wish i had a laser cutter to make a pair and try it myself
old_bass_masta in reply to bujo0Sep 7, 2008. 4:49 PM
if iwanted them id use my uncle's plasma cutter. i love it!
Meie says: Apr 23, 2009. 5:21 PM
check my painting i made with the glasses:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdXgoLezKnc

(btw, after some research, i found out its waaaay better to use some prisms from binoculars, much more sight and you don;t have to look down)
T3h_Muffinator says: Dec 18, 2007. 8:19 PM
Haha! Cool! Awesome attempt, Eric! You were so close! I'm just curious - where does one go to get acrylic sheets/ mirrored acrylic sheets? (Other than the Instructables Supply Shelf....)
prank in reply to T3h_MuffinatorJan 27, 2008. 10:37 PM
usplastics.com it's called reflective acrylic or mirror-backed acrylic. Something like that.
nagutron says: Dec 18, 2007. 6:22 PM
i think someone with a steady hand could cut these out with a small saw. You don't need all the tabs and grooves; they could just glue them together with the right angles. You might also try uploading the design to Ponoko; then people can just order them directly, from there...
Bubjo in reply to nagutronJan 15, 2008. 4:56 AM
I cannot open the pdf file with instructions. I see you did it. Can you email me the instructions as attachement? Thanks in advance. Bub bub@buroojongerius.nl
zachninme says: Dec 29, 2007. 6:42 PM
Cool! Although, I think your french needs a bit of work, n'est-ce pas? ;-) Have you tried wearing them for extended periods? That sounds fun...
ryanzxc says: Dec 19, 2007. 9:15 PM
Good instructable. It reminds me of a pseudo scope. it inverts the image so the right eye sees what the left eyes sees and vise versa. It severely messes with you depth perception. Both are cool demonstrations of the brain's interpretation of vision.
bofthem (author) in reply to ryanzxcDec 24, 2007. 9:32 PM
I'd love to do a series of perception bending tricks.
rickharris says: Dec 19, 2007. 1:19 PM
better still wear them for a while - Psychological experiments show that after a while your brain does an invert of the image so you see properly. When you take them off for a while your vision is inverted until your brain re converts to normal - thus showing that vision takes place in the brain not the eye.
GorillazMiko says: Dec 18, 2007. 7:08 PM
lol, cool and funny looking! haha
Patrik says: Dec 18, 2007. 6:17 PM
Heh - pretty goofy. :-D You could also get the same effect with a set of (heavy) lenses. If you want to maintain the proper line of vision, you can rig up a similar set of glasses with three reflections, using a mirrored V suspended above a horizontal mirror. If you want to switch left-right instead of top-bottom (i.e. view the world in mirror image), you could rotate the entire light path for each eye, such that the mirrored V is now oriented vertically. You could also switch the left and right eye. As you've discovered, most of these designs will only allow a fairly narrow field of vision, and/or get very bulky. For a wider field of vision and even greater flexibility in visual distortions, get a set of VR glasses and 2 webcams...
ac1D says: Dec 18, 2007. 6:13 PM
Look cool! Can you add a video of the result ?
Brennn10 says: Dec 18, 2007. 6:12 PM
Wow, these are great! Nice job!
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