'Astronomical' contact lenses

European and American scientists say the invention of a new type of contact lens, if used with special glasses, can bring telescopic vision to the wearer.

The team, led by Joseph Ford of the University of California at San Diego (USA) and Eric Tremblay of the EPFL (Switzerland), have fabricated a prototype 8 mm diameter, 1mm diameter contact lense at the center. The circle is a 1.17mm magnifying glass.

Contact lenses are equipped with astronomical elements to focus light on the retina - (photo: EPFL).

The combination of contact lenses and eyeglasses provides 2.8x magnification, while polarizing filters in the eyeglasses allow users to switch from normal vision to astronomy.

The glaucoma system was developed to assist people with chronic age-related blindness, including macular degeneration, a type of blindness usually seen as part of the eye that deals with minor details of harm. .

"The hardest part of this project is to make ventilating contact lenses, if you want to wear glasses more than 30 minutes ," according to BBC quoted expert Joseph Ford.

The air needs to penetrate the glass, so that the cornea of the eye is supplied with constant oxygen.

The new glasses will be tested in December and will gradually be adjusted so that people with vision loss who are old enough to wear a contact lens all day long.