New telescopic contact lens design may improve AMD patients' vision

A team of U.S. and Swiss researchers has created a slim, telescopic contact lens that can switch between normal and magnified vision. With refinements, the system could offer age-related macular degeneration patients a relatively unobtrusive way to enhance their vision, according to a press release from the Optical Society.

The new lens system uses tightly fitting mirror surfaces to make a telescope that has been integrated into a contact lens just over a millimeter thick. The lens functions with two modalities. The center of the lens provides unmagnified vision, while the ring-shaped telescope located at the periphery of the regular contact lens magnifies the view 2.8 times, the release said.

To switch back and forth between the magnified view and normal vision, users would wear a pair of liquid crystal glasses originally made for viewing 3D televisions. These glasses selectively block either the magnifying portion of the contact lens or its unmagnified center. The liquid crystals in the glasses electrically change the orientation of polarized light, allowing light with one orientation or the other to pass through the glasses to the contact lens, according to the release.

Tests showed that the magnified image quality through the contact lens was clear and provided a much larger field of view than other magnification approaches; however, refinements are necessary before this proof-of-concept system could be used by consumers, the release said.

This research has recently been published in Optics Express. To read the paper, go to http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-21-13-15980.