If you’re a gamer you’ll recognize the trope: a hero steps into the harsh glare of a desert planet or a blasted cityscape and her sunglasses automatically slide into place over her face. These futuristic shades are handy, they look badass and they keep your corneas from being sandblasted by interstellar debris.

Well, a young man named Yousif Ashoor has 3D-printed his own automatic sunglasses and popped them up on Reddit, where I found him and asked him to film a demo just for us. The project, while still in its nascent stage, is one of the coolest gadgets I’ve seen in a while.

“I created these glasses on a whim after seeing some trailers for Deus Ex,” he said. “I thought it would be cool to have something like the augments Adam Jenson has so I used my knowledge of 3D printing and design.”

The system senses UV light and simply slides the lenses into place when things get too bright. Ashoor is working on sharing the design, but didn’t say anything about selling these things. However, it’s a great little project and a great design.

“I have only been doing this kind of stuff for about 2 years,” he said. He’s in between web design jobs but he’s enjoying some tinkering time while he’s out of work. He’s a great sport and his glasses, I must admit, are really amazing.