Scientists create contact lens that magnifies at blink of an eye
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/13/contact-lens-magnifies-blink-of-eye
Pentagon-funded device could help people with age-related macular degeneration
by enlarging objects so they can see them with peripheral vision
The only person I know personally with macular degeneration would _not_ be
capable of learning how to wink properly to turn on/off the magnification. 8^)
What would be more likely is that they would forget they'd turned it on and
freak out because everything was so huge. I can imagine lots of old drivers
causing more crashes because their lenses were on or off or clicking on/off
when they were squinting to see something. Now for soldiers on the other
hand... that seems pretty cool.
I happened to sit at a bar for dinner last night next to a couple who
are both Opthamologists who were referencing this (not as a new
announcement, just the cool tech in their field these days?).
On top of that, I've a good friend in Toronto who was just coming out of
cataract surgery (at 49) yesterday afternoon. She didn't think it was
funny when I asked her if she'd had one of these implanted just for
grins.... just like others don't seem to smile (grimace maybe) when I
suggest instead of a knee replacement (you know who you are), they just
have Flex-Foot Cheetah prosthetics engineered in place of them.
I know a fellow (also around 50) who has had MD since he was a teen and
gets around well enough on foot and even bicycle but cannot really
recognize a face... he has to stare off to one side to see your mouth
moving and facial features changing, but without foveal vision can't
really do much more than register that there are changes. I'm guessing
this tech is just what he needs to improve his quality of life.
As for this becoming "the hazard we don't know", I believe it, but that
is always the case. I just rode in a car with a retired professor who
bought a car with the new automatic-parallel-parking feature. It
seemed to work, but sure made me nervous... partly because I don't know
how the algorithms work and manage a fail-safe mode and partly because
as with my own parents as they got very elderly, more aids to keep them
driving when they should have quit for many reasons wasn't necessarily a
good idea. And with a huge demographic hump of baby-boomers heading
over the horizon (myself included), I can just imagine the mayhem we
will cause with each of us becoming a cyborg patchwork of sensory,
mobility, and cognitive fingers-in-the-dike! Like the woman who I
bought my first car (64 T-bird) from who insisted that she wouldn't know
what to do without the turn indicator embedded on the front fenders to
remind her that she was planning to make a turn and which way! Of
course, she was only 32, just very ditzy!
- Steve
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