Though the idea of having anything other than a regular contact lens on one’s eye might provoke a few uncomfortable blinks just thinking about it for some, there could be a whole lot more going on to aid human vision in the future, with developments made recently by Swiss researchers working on contacts that have tiny telescopes in them.

The wee, reflective telescopes implanted in a 1.55 millimeter-thick lens could boost vision and even zoom in and out like a camera lens, reports the AFP, with wearers using their eyeballs to control the action.

While wearing smart glasses that respond to the user’s winks, a right wink turns the telescopes on, and the left eye winking deactivates telescopic vision.

“Small mirrors within bounce light around, expanding the perceived size of objects and magnifying the view, so it’s like looking through low magnification binoculars,” the researchers said in a statement.

Eric Tremblay with the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland unveiled the new prototype at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in California on Friday.

“We think these lenses hold a lot of promise for low vision and age-related macular degeneration,” a vision disorder that affects older people, Tremblay said.

Though visions of zooming in and out at people and other everyday objects may be dancing in your mind, the technology isn’t quite there yet.

“At this point this is still research, but we are hopeful it will eventually become a real option for people with AMD,” Tremblay added.

Previously in “Something Is In My Contact” news: Google Testing Smart Contact Lenses And Already It Feels Like Something Is Stuck In My Eye

High-tech contact lenses zoom with a wink of an eye [AFP]

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