A solution to what problem?

I've been riding my scooter into work most days now. But when there is (or is going to be) a heavy rain, I take the car. On those days, I listen to the radio on the way in. That's the one bad thing about riding my scooter - no radio. I really miss listening to Morning Edition and All Things Considered from National Public Radio.

Wednesday was a rainy day and as I listened to Morning Edition on the way to work, I was sure I had either misheard the announcer or they were playing a joke on us. They introduced the next segment by saying someone had invented 2-D glasses.Why would anyone want those? We normally see in 3-D so they couldn't be talking about regular, every day glasses. Why would you need 2-D glasses for a movie? They already have 2-D movies and you don't need special glasses for those. It turns out to be a clever response to a very specific problem. More and more people enjoy going to 3-D movies. But some people are bothered by the not-quite-real effect of watching the movie through 3-D glasses. What do you do if you want to go to a movie with someone and that other person really wants to see the 3-D version but you're bothered by the 3-D glasses? You have to sit there without the special glasses and look at the fuzzy screen with a disappointed look on your face.

Now, this company, 2-D Glasses, has a solution. If you wear their glasses in the 3-D movie, you see it clearly as a 2-D movie without the fuzziness, eye strain or headaches. It's a pretty nice solution to an interesting, though probably not wide-spread, problem. It goes to show you that there are many more opportunities for innovation than we think. The sad part, though, is that you have to pay the extra cost of getting into the 3-D movie and then you have to pay even more for the 2D glasses. It's another manifestation of one of those universal laws - you just can't win. Unless you're the guy who invented the new glasses.

Here's a link to the short piece on Morning Edition. The little graphic here is from the 2-D Glasses website.