ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 18, 1996 TAG: 9612180044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A Cuppa Joe
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
Do not be fooled by Sidney Slavin's presence at the Vision Center of the Wal-Mart in Martinsville.
"I'm really, basically, an inventor," says the semi-retired optometrist.
Slavin has patented a device known as the Substance Abuse Alcohol Simulator, or SAAS - eyeglasses designed to alter a wearer's visual plane, throw off perception and force the brain into a crisis of adaptation.
They make it difficult to walk and see.
By strapping them on to young people, he says, teachers and others can show them the hazards of operating anything, especially cars, while impaired by alcohol or other drugs.
When you put on Slavin's glasses, the world appears askew. By changing the lenses, he can increase the sensory motor conflict until the wearer acts blind drunk.
It's a serious lesson, but Slavin is not an overly serious man. To demonstrate his product, he unzips a large, gray gym bag, pulls out a stuffed animal and says, "Don't kill the critter."
Then he sets a couple of stuffed animals on the floor of a hallway. He puts two pieces of paper - one labeled "baby" and the other labeled "child" - on the floor, as well.
He straps the glasses around my head and tells me to walk along the right side of the objects, turn around and come back on the left side without touching any of them.
"Don't kill the critters," he repeats.
Disoriented, I take a step.
"You killed the baby," Slavin tells me.
I step again.
"You killed the child."
A dozen steps later, I've added the critters to my hit list. I've also developed a bit of a headache.
Watching glasses on `Dateline'
More than 25 years ago, Slavin experimented with computerized eyeglasses that he hoped would help infants with crossed eyes.
The project didn't work out: He couldn't figure out how to reduce the size of the computer, each pair of glasses would have cost $80,000, and he didn't think he could get permission to test them on infants.
His SAAS glasses cost $795. He has sold some to school systems, law enforcement agencies and the like. Driver's ed classes at two high schools in Richmond are using them this year.
In July 1995, he says, NBC's "Dateline" news magazine featured the use of the glasses on teachers and students in Richmond. Then driving school students demonstrated them - on a closed course - in broadcasts throughout Australia.
"I had calls from all over the world with orders."
Unfortunately, he didn't have any glasses on hand. Slavin hasn't found a manufacturer yet and makes the glasses himself.
"I didn't even have a box" for shipping them.
Valuable life lesson
Recently, he has been approached by representatives of "Beyond 2000," a cable program. And he has placed the glasses with six independent salespeople, hoping they'll drum up some customers and a manufacturer.
Young people who try on the glasses love them, Slavin says. More than 300 tractor-trailer drivers have tested them - not while driving, of course - and found their effects realistic.
"I've turned them into killers," he says, with delight.
He also has demonstrated them at a Martinsville area furniture factory - not while the saws were running - and at Washington and Lee University during Alcohol Awareness Week.
At W&L, "I didn't have an earth-shattering attendance," he says.
Slavin doesn't know how many people the glasses actually prevent from driving, or doing anything else, while under the influence.
He is 59. He retired from private practice a year ago. He commutes weekly from Richmond to work at Wal-Mart to earn extra money for his projects.
He declines to divulge how much he has spent on his inventions over the years, saying that if his wife saw the figure, she would divorce him.
What does she make of all this?
She thinks he is a fruitcake.
"She calls me a Mad Scientist," he says.
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256 or send e-mail to kenn@roanoke.infi.net. Or write to me at P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010-2491.
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