How would you like to zoom in on every tiny detail by using “nothing” but your eyes? Before you say it’s impossible, a “thing of the future”, I’ll let you know that scientists have developed a contact lens that can do exactly that. Yes, it’s here.
Revealed last year, at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Jose, the lens provides the user with telescopic vision. One wink and you can zoom in on that tiny footnote at the bottom of a document or slightly blurry photo before you fix it. Can you think of anything more compact than a contact lens of 1.55 millimeters thick?!
Optics specialist Eric Tremblay and his team used a rigid scleral lens, safe for special applications in industries that work with sensors and electronics. This lens augments the size of objects you’re looking at, explains Tremblay:
“Small mirrors within bounce light around, expanding the perceived size of objects – magnifying the view, so it’s like looking through low magnification binoculars”
The lens come with smart glasses that can respond to the winks, not the blinks of a wearer, so he can switch from magnified vision to normal one swiftly.
This amazing piece of technology can change the lives of almost 285 million people worldwide who suffer from the consequences of age-related macular degeneration. It could help them ready easier as well as recognize facial features and object’ details.
As good as it sounds, we might have to wait a while before the technology makes it to mass-market. One thing’s for sure, according to Tremblay: “there is a strong need for something more integrated and a contact lens is an attractive direction.”
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