AR Adventures: Inner Pupillary Distance
I just have to share with you guys how I used Scandy Pro to get possibly my favorite pair of glasses ever. No, I didn’t scan a pair or 3D print them. I measured my face in augmented reality to get a perfect custom fit. Are you ready? This is going to get really cool.
I haven’t had a new pair of glasses in almost a year. I like to order mine from Zenni.com. It has totally customizable frames and lens. All you have to do is add your prescription information. Last time I ordered, before I had the Scandy Pro app, I was filling in my prescription information, and I hit a blank for PD, or pupillary distance. This is the distance from the center of one pupil to the center of another. It is measured in millimeters. This measurement is important when your glasses are made because the manufacturer will use it to determine the exact optical center of lens which is the point that you look through. Cool, but my prescription didn’t include this information. It must be common, because Zenni included a guide for how you can measure your pupillary distance at home.
It was so hard!
- Stand 8 in. away from a mirror.
- Hold a ruler against your brow.
- Close your right eye then align the ruler’s 0 mm with the center of your left pupil.
- Look straight then close your left eye and open your right eye.
- The mm line that lines up to the center of your right pupil is your PD.
Remember, I was ordering glasses because I feel practically blind without them. So if you are like me, you probably will have a really hard time reading that tiny sucker backwards in the mirror with any kind of confidence in your measurements.
But I did it. Recorded what I thought was the appropriate distance, 69mm, and sent off for my new glasses. I must have been wrong because what I received was super uncomfortable and difficult to look through. And since I wasn’t wearing them much, 2 weeks later, that old reliable pooch destroyed them, right on schedule.
Now let’s fast forward a few months. I thought I would give it a try again. But this time, I had a new tool. One that can accurately measure my face for me, Scandy Pro.
I took a scan of my face and saved it in the app. I did my scan at 1mm resolution, so the accuracy of the scan is in millimeters, just like the measurement needed for pupillary distance. I projected the scan into augmented reality in the app and used the measurement tool. To make this even easier, I zoomed into the scan to see exactly where my pupil is on each eye. I set one point at each pupil, and the tool told me just how far apart those 2 points are in a straight line. Here, my measurement was 53 mm.
With renewed faith, I ordered a new pair of glasses from Zenni. For 10 days I waited anxiously. Two days ago, they arrived. They fit, they are comfortable, and they are super cute
Not exactly the way I thought I would ever use 3D technology, but that doesn’t make me any less excited about it.
Do you have a cool, alternative use of 3D technology story? I love to hear them. Email them to me at Kristin@scandy.co or tag us in social media @ScandyCo
