Researchers develop autofocusing contact lenses

Research funded by the National Eye Institute and National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award is exploring a contact lens that adjusts focus automatically, within milliseconds, according to a press release from the NIH.

The project’s leader, Hongrui Jiang, PhD, from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said the contacts will continuously adjust in concert with one’s own cornea and lens to recapture a person’s youthful vision, according to the release.

The lenses involve algorithm-driven sensors and miniature electronic circuits that adjust the shape of the lens.

The team was inspired by the elephant nose fish’s retina, which is uniquely shaped to capture low light in the muddy rivers where it swims, according to the release. The researchers created a device that contains thousands of very small light collectors.

Throughout separate studies, researchers have tested a few different contact lens materials, according to the release.

Jiang said the device still needs tweaking, and clinical testing may be 5 to 10 years off.