A telescopic contact lens capable of magnifying the image of the surrounding world could give sight back to those affected by age-related vision degeneration.

Developed as part of a project funded by the US defence agency Darpa, the telescopic contact lens consists of two separate layers – one for seeing the world as it is, the other allowing the wearer to zoom in up to three times.

To switch between the two vision modes is simple – just blinking with one eye while wearing special glasses.

"We think these lenses hold a lot of promise for low vision and age-related macular degeneration (AMD),” said Eric Tremblay, from the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland, who led the Darpa-funded research.



Read the full E&T article online.