Researchers from the United Arab Emirates have developed ‘smart’ contact lenses that have both UV-transition and temperature-responsive capabilities.
Professor Haider Butt and PhD student Ahmed Salih from Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa University said the contact lenses have unique optical attributes, depending on their activated and inactivated states.
The lenses are made of photochromic and thermochromic powders. The photochromic powders respond to UV radiation by altering their structure, while thermochromic powders react to temperature fluctuations.
When integrated into lenses, this combination provides a simpler, cost-effective solution for managing and potentially preventing various eye conditions, the researchers said.
In the research paper,1 they said the contact lenses offer excellent UV and blue light blocking capabilities in their inactive state. When activated via UV exposure, the transparent lenses darkened instantaneously and absorbed portions of the visible light spectrum, the researchers said.
What sets these lenses apart is the ability to use different thermochromic and photochromic powders for user-specific customisation. Blue transition lenses exhibit rapid colour change, reverting to transparency less than five seconds after UV exposure. Pink lenses offer more intense colouration but take more than 30 seconds to return to transparency.
“Since these multifunctional lenses showed good UV and blue light filtering capabilities along with physiological colorimetric temperature-responsiveness, they can potentially be utilised as therapeutic and diagnostic wearable aids to monitor and prevent various ocular diseases,” the researchers said.
Reference
Salih, A.E., Butt, H., Multifunctional transition and temperature-responsive contact lenses. Light Sci Appl 12, 271 (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-023-01304-1.
