Telescopic contact lenses that lets you zoom in with a wink - the future is here

The future is here. Scientists have unveiled the latest version of a first of its kind telescopic contact lens, that allows the wearer to zoom in and out with the wink of an eye.

The present see through wearable displays which augment the quality of vision are not user friendly, impractical and also not cosmetically ugly.

However, the new contact lenses will feature an in-built telescope, and it could help the 500,000 British patients who suffer of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), improving their peripheral vision by three times. Swiss scientists stated that the new technology might be available in two years, making it a safer and cheaper option than surgery.

The prototype, unveiled at the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Jose, California, by Eric Tremblay from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, could one day help people with visual impairment.

Eric Tremblay, who led research at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, said: 'We think these lenses hold a lot of promise for low vision and age-related macular degeneration. 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.'

An estimated 285 million people in the world have serious vision problems.