New Optics for Telescopes?

Despite the main thrust behind the research being from the military, I was fascinated by a recent paper concerning a contact lens telescope. The lens has a periphery which allows the front surface to act as a positive objective. Light is then internally reflected to, in effect, use the body of the lens as the telescope tube, until it exits via a posterior suface portion acting in the same way as a negative eyepiece. The contact lens itself is likely to be nigh-on unwearably thick and there are questions over the quality of the image. That said, the compaction of elements of a telescope into a single lens thickness for contact use is, in my humble view, a new development that may require a few textbooks to be revised. Has anyone else any knowledge on this area to share?