Contact Lenses to Ease Age-Related Blindness?

Contact lenses that magnify a field of vision like wearable binoculars could help millions of  visually impaired people to see clearly, scientists  say.

The contact lenses, developed at École Polytechnique Fėdėrale de Lausanne in Switzerland have an inbuilt ring of thin reflecting surfaces like tiny mirrors to magnify objects to nearly three times normal size. The mirrors circle a central lens and switch between normal and magnified vision when the wearer winks.

Although still in prototype, the lenses could be used for people with age-related macular  degeneration, a leading cause of blindness. There are also plans for military applications – the research was funded by the US department of Defence.

The Independent 14.02.2015 P.5

“The worlds’ got enough weapons – lets have research like this develop into affordable health care products.”