Contact Lenses

If people with glaucoma don't stay on top of their condition, blindness may result. An experimental new contact lens is designed to help, by both monitoring glaucoma symptoms and automatically releasing medication as needed.

Many contact lens users end up suffering from an uncomfortable and sometimes even debilitating condition known as contact lens-induced dry eye (CLIDE). An experimental new contact lens, however, could keep that from happening … using a simple design.

Forget your bulky AR headsets, smart contact lenses are coming to place augmented reality displays right there on your eyeball. Last week, Mojo Vision CEO Drew Perkins volunteered to test the first feature-complete prototype of his company's design.

If diabetes progresses too far, it can result in a potentially blinding condition known as retinopathy. And while existing treatments are invasive and often painful, there may be new hope in the form of an LED-equipped contact lens.

We've looked at many studies and research prototypes demonstrating how contact lenses could be used for more than correcting vision, and a new approval from the FDA has now cleared the way for use of the world's first drug-delivering contact lens.

While there are glasses that help compensate for red-green color blindness, the lenses often can't be shaped to users' prescriptions. That's why scientists are developing a new type of corrective contact lens, inspired by old gold-containing glass.

While we have already heard about contact lenses that monitor medical conditions, such lenses are often made from non-traditional materials. A new one, however, is composed of the same hydrogel as regular store-bought contacts.

It can sometimes be challenging for ophthalmologists, making definitive on-the-spot diagnoses of eye problems. A new "smart" contact lens is designed to help, however, by changing color in response to two common disorders.

Although augmented reality (AR) glasses are potentially very useful, they can also be awkward to wear and kind of funny-looking. California-based startup Mojo Vision is developing a sleeker, less-dorky alternative, in the form of an AR contact lens.

Although contact lenses may be less awkward than glasses, they do have their drawbacks – among these is the fact that they can cause "dry eye syndrome." Help could be on the way, however, in the form of a self-moisturizing contact.

In the age of wearable computers, scientists in the laboratories of DARPA, Google, and universities around the world see contact lenses not as tools to improve our vision, but as opportunities to augment the human experience. But how? And why?

​Caused by autoimmune diseases, chemical burns, or sometimes even as a side effect of eye surgery, corneal melting is an incurable disease that's a major cause of blindness. It could someday be treated using a contact lens, however, which is currently in the works.