Contact Lenses Developed By Swiss Scientists Allows Wearer 2.8x Magnified Vision In Wink Of An Eye

Techtimes.com - Telescopic contact lenses developed in Switzerland allow users to zoom in on distant objects, as if they were looking through binoculars. The lenses can magnify a wearer's vision up to 2.8 times.

The new contact lens can be switched between normal and magnified states, as images are carried along a pair of independent pathways. A pair of glasses worn with the lenses recognizes winks, while ignoring quick involuntary blinks, in order to change modes. Users wink their right eye to view the world in magnified mode, and a left eye blink is used to return to normal vision.

Around 285 million people worldwide suffer from some form of visual impairment. The leading cause of blindness is age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

"It's very important and hard to strike a balance between function and the social costs of wearing any kind of bulky visual device. There is a strong need for something more integrated, and a contact lens is an attractive direction. At this point this is still research, but we are hopeful it will eventually become a real option for people with AMD,"  Eric Tremblay at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland said.

This is the latest version of the contact lens system, first developed in 2013, as part of research funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Since the initial version, researchers have been working on updating the lens, making them easier to wear for longer periods of time. The latest version is larger than traditional contacts and rigid. Oxygen needs to pass through the lens and onto the eye. This is accomplished through tiny pores built into the contacts.

Reflective surfaces in the lens function like a telescope along one path of light, while a small aperture allows for light to pass along a different route, little altered by the system.

"There are glasses already on the market for people with AMD that have mounted telescopes, but they tend to look bulky and interfere with social interaction. They also do not track eye movement, so you have to position your eyes and tilt your head to use them," the researchers stated.

Further research is aimed at delivering images of higher quality, as well as a less intrusive lens. Other optical devices could also benefit from the technology, say researchers.

This Painting Is Not What It Seems

Land Rover Discovery Vision concept (2014) ‘see-through’ bonnet revealed

T-Rex Optical Illusion Will Creep You Out And Blow Your Mind

Could scientists identify criminals by enhancing their reflection in a victim's EYE by zooming in on photos?

Dailymail.co.uk - Police could soon be using the reflections of people and objects in the eyes of victims and witnesses to crimes to solve cases, a study revealed today.

'The pupil of the eye is like a black mirror,' lead researcher Dr Jenkins said.

'Eyes in the photographs could reveal where you were and who you were with.'

Jenkins said it was possible for low-resolution passport photos to be 'mined' for information, such as faces of witnesses, bystanders, locations and environmental sign-posts, to help law enforcers piece together a criminal narrative.

He said this technique would be particularly useful in crimes in which victims are photographed, such as hostage-taking and child sex abuse.

In the study, Jenkins and the University of Glasgow's Christie Kerr photographed eight individuals, who were themselves looking at four people who were behind the camera.

Study subjects were asked to either match the images to a series of mug shots, or to identify people who were familiar to them in the eye reflections.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found test subjects were able to spot familiar faces reflected in the pupils of someone who was photographed 84 percent of the time.

When the reflected images were of unfamiliar people, observers were able to match the person to a second mug shot with 71 percent accuracy.

Test subjects were able to spot familiar faces reflected in the pupils of someone who was photographed 84% of the time, researchers said.

'In the context of criminal investigations, this could be used to piece together networks of associates, or to link individuals to particular locations,' Jenkins, from the University of York, told Kurzweil Artificial Intelligence.

'This may be especially important when for categories of crime in which perpetrators photograph their victims. Reflections in the victims eyes could reveal the identity of the photographer.

'Also, around 40 million photographs per day are uploaded to Instagram alone.

'Faces are among the most frequently photographed objects. Our study serves as a reminder to be careful what you upload.'

However Kerr noted the forensic value of these photos was limited because they must be shot in high- resolution and the subject must be looking directly at the camera.

'For now, our findings suggest a novel application for high-resolution photography: for crimes in which victims are photographed, corneal image analysis could be useful for identifying perpetrators,' the study authors wrote.

The study noted that the word pupil comes from the Latin word pupilla, which can mean young girl or doll, and conveys the idea that when one looks into someone else's eyes, they see a tiny doll-like version of themselves reflected back.

What shade is the sqaure in the shadow?

James Bond-like telescopic contact lens lets you zoom in on the world

Mnn.com - A new telescopic contact lens could soon transform people with impaired vision into high-tech super spies.

It sounds like a high-tech gadget out of a James Bond movie: a telescopic contact lens that lets you zoom in on the world. But it's real, and it could soon be available to everyday consumers, according to New Scientist.

Developed by Eric Tremblay and colleagues at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the cyborg-like contact lens utilizes a central unmagnified optical path that is surrounded by a ring of optics. Liquid crystal shutters, which would be controlled by the user, can then block one or another of these optical paths, so the view can be magnified. In other words, the user can effectively zoom in and out on objects like a camcorder.

Other than being straight-up cool, these telescopic contact lens could be a godsend for people with impaired vision, particularly those with age-related macular degeneration. Currently, such people are typically given cumbersome bioptic telescopes, which attach to their glasses to make up for a loss of vision in the central area of their retinas. Replacing those devices with contact lenses that can perform the same function would allow them to operate normally in the world, and more discreetly.

But that discretion could also raise some serious privacy concerns. The lens could give anyone with normal vision a kind of super eyesight, allowing them to stealthily zoom in on other people. In other words, anyone wearing a pair of these high-tech lenses could use them to spy on other people without them knowing about it. So while the contacts would be welcome in the hands of those with vision impairments, in the hands of the neighborhood peeping tom? Not so much.

The research was funded by DARPA, the high-risk research arm of the U.S. Defense Department, suggesting that concerns over spying — or other military uses for the technology —may not be so far-fetched.

Even so, the technology could also lead to breakthroughs in augmented reality. If Google Glass ever catches on, for instance, contact lenses that perform similar functions would be the next step forward.

Right now there's still time to debate the use of the technology, as researchers have a number of kinks to work out before the contact lenses can be made available to consumers or patients. For instance, current prototypes are built of hard plastic, which would not be comfortable in the eye. The acuity of the zoomed-in image is also not up to design specifications, and researchers still need to determine the mechanism for switching the magnification on and off. But none of these details are insurmountable. The arrival of a zoomable contact lens is only a small matter of time.

New wide-angle mirror could eliminate blind spots in cars

Foxnews.com - Objects in this mirror are closer than they appear, but they look just fine.

A mathematics professor from Drexel University has been granted a patent for a wide-angle mirror design that minimizes distortion to previously unseen levels, and could theoretically eliminate the blind spots that have been a bugaboo of automotive design since Ray Harroun installed the first rearview mirror on his Marmon race car for the 1911 Indy 500.

Based on research that began when he was developing optics for soccer-playing robots, Dr. R. Andrew Hicks tells FoxNews.com that he developed an algorithm that reinvents the shape of a wide-angle mirror from a simple spherical section of to a more complex, freeform one that better directs the light coming in from different angles toward the viewer. The result is mirror that offers a 45-degree field of view, compared to 17-degrees for the flat mirrors found on the driver's side of cars in the United States today.

The invention is potentially an inexpensive alternative to the electronic blind spot warning systems automakers have been rolling out in recent years, which use cameras or radars to monitor the sides of a vehicle outside of the field of view of mirrors for obstacles and alert the driver with lights or sounds if the car is steered toward an occupied space.

Hicks has discussed the mirror with several automakers, but there’s a big hurdle keeping them from ever using it on one of their cars: Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 111. This is the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration rule established in 1967 that governs the design of side view mirrors and mandates that the one on the driver’s side must be perfectly flat with 1:1 reflection, while the allowable curvature of the passenger side mirror is strictly defined. Without a rewrite of the regulation, it’s unlikely that Hick’s mirror could be offered as a standard feature in its current form.

Nevertheless, the invention could one day be used to see much farther than the next lane. Hicks says the technology could be incorporated into future space telescopes which rely on mirrors to provide a wide field of view.

Objects viewed through those may also be closer than they appear, but probably not enough to make much of a difference.