These telescopic lenses could help to partially recover the sight ~ DepoTech

The last type of lens chip, developed by the University of Washington works by determining the levels of glucose in the tear fluid directly corresponding to those found in the blood, which makes possible the continuous measurement without the need for bites thumb, according to its creator Babak Parviz of the University of Washington. Information obtained its transmitted wirelessly to a portable device worn by diabetics, allowing them to manage their diet and their drugs more accurately. These super sensitive electrodes with a chip that contains a radio frequency antenna, are fabricated on a flat substrate made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a transparent polymer commonly found in plastic bottles.

These lenses could also map images directly to the field of vision for the ultimate experience in augmented reality: the information that currently appear on some electronic devices such as our cell, for superimposing images on our environment, helpful information or games without glasses or helmet. To produce such lenses, the researchers developed a material tolerable by the eye, thanks to microelectronics, including both red and blue LEDs for a 3D image display in green on the eye without interfering with the image background. This prototype is still in the testing phase, but could quickly emerge, according to Parviz.

These people can read more easily and better see the faces and objects.

Approximately 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired and macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in older adults in the Western world, according to the World Health Organization.

"There is a significant need to develop compact and integrated systems and contact lenses are attractive in this regard," he added noting that the work is still in the research stage. "But we are confident that these contact lenses will be a real option for people with macular degeneration or other," said the scientist. The question lenses to automatically switch to normal view vision magnified 2.8 times.

These approaches "might work one day"

"In many cases a magnifying glass is very useful for those people who are in fact sometimes mounted on glasses, but this is not practical," noted Eric Tremblay whose project is funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the Pentagon's research agency.

These contact lenses incorporate the magnifying glass and thus have two fields of vision, swollen, and the other normal. When the person blinks in the right eye, the 3D glasses are changing the polarization of the light that strikes the contact lenses at an angle triggering the zoom effect. Just blink his left eye to stop it.

The other advanced presented at the AAAS conference is that of Dr. Daniel Palanker of Stanford University in California (west). These glasses with a camera which sends images to the retina's nerves are stimulated by hundreds of photovoltaic cells. They convert light into electrical impulses. These signals are then transmitted to the brain which allows the person to see these images.

"We were able to restore half of normal vision in rats," said the researcher who hopes to begin clinical trials in humans in 2016 in France. It is associated with the French company Pixium Vision based in Paris.

In addition to research to develop a bionic eye, there was also optogenetics of changing genetically retinal cells to make new sensitive to light and the stem-cell transplant to replace retinal tissues damaged.

Professor Palenker explained that these approaches "might work one day but have not yet resulted in the production of photoreceptors and thus do not offer solution yet for patients with macular degeneration while our microprocessors work well in animals ".