A Look Into the Future: UCSD Researchers Develop Telescopic Contact Lenses

Telescopic vision may soon be a reality. Researchers at UC San Diego have developed a prototype for telescopic contact lenses.

CBS News reports that the local university and a team of collaborators recently completed the first clinical trial on a lens that magnifies vision by 2.8 times. It said seniors with age related vision loss or macular degeneration and the military could use the lenses.

The news station goes on to explain that users will wear a set of glasses with the contact lenses and that a wink detector, which is still in development, will allow users to switch between 2.8 times telescopic magnification and normal vision.

"We have to redesign it to make it compatible with conventional contact lens materials, to make the lens from a combination of oxygen permeable plastics and make it as thin as possible," researcher Joe Ford told CBS.

He added that the first round of clinical trials did not "produce the image quality we need, and is not yet suitable to extended wear."

Read more about the telescopic contact lenses here.