Hobbies And Interests
Child's Toy
Widely advertised in the back of comic books, X-Ray Specs were a type of novelty glasses aimed at children. The specs had special lenses which created an illusion, allowing the wearer to "see" his own skeleton. The lenses diffracted light in such a way that the wearer saw two slightly offset images, which caused the illusion of seeing through things. Even the product's own advertising admitted that they didn't provide true x-ray vision, and were simply a harmless toy. Their inventor, Harold von Braunhut, also developed the Amazing Sea-Monkeys.
Real X-Ray Specs?
ThruVision, a company based out of Oxfordshire, UK, has recently developed an imaging system that can see through clothing from up to 80 feet away. Originally designed for astronomers and telescopes to help see through cosmic dust in outer space, the developers soon realized the camera had other applications. As of December 2010, there is no wearable version of the camera, which is rather bulky. However, with further development, x-ray specs could soon become a reality.
Pop Culture
In the 1970s, a British punk rock band, inspired by the novelty toy, named themselves X-Ray Spex. Their original incarnation only managed to release one album, none of which were about the toy. There was also a British comic strip called X-Ray Specs, which ran from 1975 until 1995.