[Samuel]

Originally Posted by Futureguy

Remember that Kirk needed glasses in the movies...he was allergic to the treatment for his particular vision problem. Bones got him glasses for a birthday present in TWOK.

Yes. Thats probably little different than the eyedrops my father takes for glacoma, but in Kirks case for vision instead. But, I AFAIK for the most part the only thing that prevents laser surgery is a doctors opinion on how long it would last before glasses would be needed again anyways. So, he should have been perfectly fine with it. Unless I suppose its another one of those future 'cure-alls' that made laser sugery obsolete and nobody did it anymore..... so long as you had your meds.

[Akula2ssn]

Originally Posted by Samuel

Yes. Thats probably little different than the eyedrops my father takes for glacoma, but in Kirks case for vision instead. But, I AFAIK for the most part the only thing that prevents laser surgery is a doctors opinion on how long it would last before glasses would be needed again anyways. So, he should have been perfectly fine with it. Unless I suppose its another one of those future 'cure-alls' that made laser sugery obsolete and nobody did it anymore..... so long as you had your meds.

Actually there are a number of factors that a doctor looks at for laser eye surgery. First off is what the condition is. It is easier to correct nearsightedness than farsightedness. Nearsightedness is because the eyeball is longer than the focal length of the lens. So you use a laser to skim off tissue to basically help flatten the cornea and shorten its length so that the light is focused properly. Farsightedness, the eye is shorter than it should be, so it's a lot harder to try to use a laser to correct it, and the amount of correction that can be done is much more limited.

Another thing a doctor will look at is the topography of the cornea. In my case, my corneas were awfully steep, so in the doctor's judgment, LASIK posed some unnecessary risks and instead he opted for PRK. The doctor may also take measurements of the shape of the interior side of the cornea.

Another thing the doctor will look at is how thick the cornea is. This is important since the surgery requires removing tissue. If the cornea is too thin, the procedure isn't going to be recommended.

Also how stable your eyes are. Did the prescription of your eye glasses change significantly in the past year. If so then the doctor probably won't recommend the surgery. Also how much correction is needed.

Pre-existing conditions that can affect the eyes like diabetes is another things that may cause the doctor to not do the procedure.

Age is another thing. People younger than their 20s are not good candidates because their bodies are still developing and thus their eyes are likely still changing.

In any case, the condition that Kirk had appears to have had was likely the result of aging. When you reach your 40s, your eyes' ability to adjust its focus from looking at distant objects to objects closer degrades. I think it's because the eye becomes less flexible. This came make reading difficult. If you notice at the end of TWOK, when his glasses broke, Kirk had to hold the book farther away, not closer. This kind of condition is not treatable by lasers and never was. That's why a doctor that does laser eye surgery is likely to tell you that you will still need reading glasses once you reach middle age. The mechanism behind the condition is different. Kirk probably still had perfect 20/20 vision. It's just he couldn't focus on near objects.

[Samuel]

All interesting stuff. Obviously I am not a doctor.

[Akula2ssn]

Heh. I'm not doctor either, but fortunately my doctor and his assistant spent quite a bit of time explaining things during the various visits I had prior to the surgery.

[DNA-1842]

Almost on the note of the thread topic, I personally dislike the whole of the Voyager Bridge set - it's all orthogonally set out, with some weak and therefore obsolete curves. As opposed to the concept image number four on that page you linked to! I would have loved that one! Yeah, they were going for a military look, but couldn't they have done it with a bit of flair!? It is Science-fiction.
_______

Akula, what was your prescription before you got it corrected?

(I'm -5.5 in each eye, roughly, and going further into the negative all the time! Being only sixteen, I have not settled.)

(-5.5 being the strength of the lens used to correct my vision, in Dioptres - just in case you were needing that info!)

[Futureguy]

Originally Posted by Samuel

All interesting stuff. Obviously I am not a doctor.

Jim, I'm a Dr. --- of Optamology---not a mechanic! :-)

[matty]

the Kelvin had a much wider viewscreen, in the scene where Robau talks to Eyal on the viewer you can see out of the left window, debris floating about the ship where its been damaged. Detail i cant wait to see on the Bluray version!

[DannydeK]

I don't like the window at all. It's stupid to use glass (which is always more vunarable). Also, it must be heavly filtered/advanced glass since it needs to be resitant to radiation/to bright light and stuff like that. It will take some advanced nano-technology to make this sort of glass.

It looks much nicer with the video-overlay, yes, but it's not logical to use it on a starship like Enterprise.

[lonstar70]

I thought the window was OK. i could go either way. What gets me, is now the top front of the saucer section is in their way. They can't see everything. Also, can they use it to show reverse, side angles, to see ships coming in from different directions? If it's a window, I dunno.

[Big D]

Originally Posted by DannydeK

I don't like the window at all. It's stupid to use glass (which is always more vunarable). Also, it must be heavly filtered/advanced glass since it needs to be resitant to radiation/to bright light and stuff like that. It will take some advanced nano-technology to make this sort of glass.

It looks much nicer with the video-overlay, yes, but it's not logical to use it on a starship like Enterprise.

It's clearly not glass, though, since it's at least as tough as the rest of the hull. At the end of the film, when the ship was snagged by the black hole's gravity well, the bridge's roof began to crack before the screen did.