A new telescopic contact lens and complementary smart glasses that recognise winks and ignore blinks have been developed with potential applications for AMD patients.
The device, unveiled at the AAAS annual meeting in San Jose, California this week, allowed wearers of the contact lenses to switch between normal and magnified views.
It worked by incorporating a very thin reflective telescope inside a 1.55mm lens. Small mirrors within bounce light around, expanding the perceived size of objects and magnifying the view.
Eric Tremblay, who led research at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, said: ‘We think these lenses hold a lot of promise for low vision and age-related macular degeneration. It's very important and hard to strike a balance between function and the social costs of wearing any kind of bulky visual device.
‘There is a strong need for something more integrated, and a contact lens is an attractive direction. At this point this is still research, but we are hopeful it will eventually become a real option for people with AMD.’
The first iteration of the telescopic contact lens was announced in 2013 (Optician 04.07.15), since when scientists have fine-tuned the lens membranes and developed accessories to make it more usable in everyday life.
The final scleral contact lenses were made from several precision cut plastics, aluminium mirrors, and polarising thin films, along with biologically safe glues, a statement said. To achieve oxygen permeability, air channels roughly 0.1mm wide were incorporated within the lens.
In addition, ‘on demand’ magnification was provided by electronic glasses that use a small light source and light detector to recognise winks and ignore blinks. The wearer could wink their right eye for magnification and left eye for normal vision, the statement added.
The BCLA said it applauded any innovation that will give people back their precious gift of sight.
Professor James Wolffsohn said: ‘This seems an intriguing idea, to provide optical magnification to the retina when required in a similar way to a bioptic telescope.
‘It is currently a scleral lens and 1.55mm thick, including rigid mirror elements, which are likely to affect corneal physiology and comfort even with the suggested micro-fenestrations for oxygen transmission. As the scientists acknowledge, there are significant ongoing challenges, but we look forward to testing the concept once a clinical prototype is available.’
