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| Contact lens with a zoom function--Courtesy of Eric Tremblay and Joe Ford, EPFL |
Developers have come up with a telescopic contact lens that can alternate between normal and magnified vision with the blink of an eye, and has the potential to help people suffering from macular degeneration.
A team led by Eric Tremlay at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne came up with the device, which is a rigid contact lens that covers the sclera (whites of the eyes). The lens is larger than conventional ones and contains minuscule aluminum mirrors that capture incoming light, magnifying objects up to 2.8 times.
With the aid of a pair of electronic glasses, the wearer can switch between normal and magnified views simply by winking one eye. That makes the glasses switch to a polarized filter that directs light to the telescopic element of the lenses. Winking the other eye resets the device back to allow light to pass through normally.
"It affords them the ability to get enough magnification for their loss of vision, absolutely," James Handa, an ophthalmologist at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told New Scientist. "It's a highly innovative and very creative idea."
The developers, who recently unveiled the prototype at the AAAS annual meeting in San Jose, CA, have also included small channels to allow for better oxygen flow around the underside of the lens.
Macular degeneration causes people to gradually lose their central vision and is a leading cause of visual impairment and blindness in the developed world.
In October, the FDA approved VisionCare Ophthalmic Technologies' Implantable Miniature Telescope in patients with bilateral end-stage age-related macular degeneration aged 65 or older.
- check out the New Scientist story