FDA Approves First Contact Lenses That Turn Dark In Bright Sunlight (interestingengineering.com)

The first photochromic contact lenses have been approved by the FDA. "A unique additive will automatically darken the lenses when they're exposed to bright light," reports Interesting Engineering, citing a FDA statement. "The lenses will clear up whenever they're back in normal or darker lighting conditions." From the report: "This contact lens is the first of its kind to incorporate the same technology that is used in eyeglasses that automatically darken in the sun," said Malvina Eydelman. Eydelman serves as director of the division of ophthalmic, and ear, nose and throat devices at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health. The FDA approved the technology after extensive trials and clinical studies. One study had 24 wearers use the contacts while driving in both daytime and nighttime settings. The FDA found that there were no problems with driving performance or issues with vision while wearing those contact lenses. In total, over 1,000 patients were involved in the various studies conducted by the FDA. According to current plans, these photochromic lenses should be available for those needing them by the first half of 2019.

Comments

Danger

[jargonburn]

But will they turn dark in the face of danger?

Re:Safety-How fast can y take them off when it's d

[erice]

Doesn't matter. They won't darken at all in a car. The react to UV and the windshield blocks UV. This is the same way that photosensitive eyeglasses work. If, like me, you only wear glasses when driving, the photosensitivity is completely useless.

Law of Unintended Consequence

[Kotukunui]

Being out in bright sunlight and seeing those lens wearers with weird blanked out eyes. Who will be the first one shot by some redneck with the excuse "Ah thort they was'n alien or a zombie, so I blasted that there creepy-eyed f*ck*r"

Re:Law of Unintended Consequence

[cascadingstylesheet]

Being out in bright sunlight and seeing those lens wearers with weird blanked out eyes. Who will be the first one shot by some redneck with the excuse "Ah thort they was'n alien or a zombie, so I blasted that there creepy-eyed f*ck*r"

Yeah, that'll happen. It's always those darn rednecks shooting people.

I'm going to stay downtown where it's safe!

Contacts or glasses that block direct sunlight

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like something I read in a science fiction book - contacts or glasses that block direct sunlight.

The glasses know where my pupils are, and where the sun is. Each lens automatically draws an opaque disk onto itself, between the eye's pupil the sun. If I turn my head, each lens draws its disk in a new location, blocking the direct sunlight from entering my eye's pupil.

Those glasses would be handy on a non-hazy day, when I'm driving towards the sun.

Re:Contacts or glasses that block direct sunlight

[dgatwood]

I've been saying for a couple of decades that I want to see car windshields do that. And it would be really easy to do on that scale.

Re:Contacts or glasses that block direct sunlight

[rl117]

There's a problem with the technology though. It darkens principally in response to UV exposure, not ambient daylight. Normally they correlate, but you can be in thick cloud where it's grey and not at all bright, but the UV level is still very high. Under this type of condition, the lens turns black and it's like night time, with the world barely visible. In a car windscreen, that would be positively dangerous.

Re:Nightvision

[suutar]

No, not compressing UV radiation, compressing much of the EM spectrum (like, the block from 1cm to 10nm) into the visible range (700nm to 400nm). Mapping, or converting, if you would like a more apt word.

I want those too, though I'd be happy enough with goggles.

Re: Safety-How fast can y take them off when it's

[freeze128]

Drive like a pirate! Arrr!

I wouldn't mind glasses that let me see better

[rsilvergun]

at night. As I've gotten older I'm hyper sensitive to light and my vision quality's gone down. The two combined can sometimes almost completely blind me at night (between folks lights and already less than perfect vision). I'm guessing by my mid-50s I won't be able to drive at night...

Re:I wouldn't mind glasses that let me see better

[Rob Lister]

You are describing the first symptoms of cataracts. I just had cataract surgery so I know what you're experiencing. Having the surgery is like getting teenage eyesight back. I can even make out the color bands on 1/8th ohm resistors again.

Re:I wouldn't mind glasses that let me see better

[Mashiki]

Yep. Not only is it fast to get done, but if you need reading glasses they can even put in new lenses that fall into the multi-focal range. My dad had his eyes done a few years ago at 60ish, for him it was pretty much a life changing event especially since his eyes had gotten so bad he couldn't even go star gazing anymore.

The big problem I'm seeing these days though is with all the new LED lights, they're mounted high on poles and seem to be angled so that they blind you when you're approaching them. I get that white light is supposed to be the new-hot thing and all that, but hearing what some of the truck drivers even those in their early 20's go on about they wish they'd bring back the low-pressure sodium lights that were orange. Round that out with the HiD lighting on a lot of the newer cars, there's an awful lot of stuff on the road that will blind you.

Re:Nightvision

[SvnLyrBrto]

Hell... thats half the reason I'm still resentful that the nerd-hating hipster brigade managed to so effectively torpedo Google Glass. Sure, it was half-baked and over priced as released. But it was the obvious first step towards Terminator & Predator vision, dammit. Realistically, IR & UV cameras plus ultrasound and maybe LIDAR, all feeding into a A/R HUD overlay, is a bit more realistic than contacts that do magic things with the EM spectrum, I would think.

(Unless, perhaps, those contacts are a miniature LDC display themselves. And maybe they can double as the eye-tracking component. But I'm not sure how you realistically generate the data to be displayed without a camera in the mix somewhere.)

Re:Tried contacts, it was a no go for me.

[WinstonWolfIT]

I am both myopic and have an astigmatism. The lenses are weighted to align them. They're gas-permeable, seconds to pop in, a blink to eject. Being hard, they help shape the cornea. so they're far superior to soft. Being permeable, it's quite safe to sleep with them in. As I've grown older, I double-dialed my acuity to read with my right and drive with my left. The brain handles the difference just fine. I've been on various iterations of hard lenses for 40 years and for me it's never been a problem.

Actually, "+1 informativee"

[DrYak]

Drive like a pirate! Arrr!

Which was also one of the reasons why some pirates wore eyepatch.
(note because of wounds, but to keep the covered eye sensitive in the darkness as soon as the ship needs to hide in the shadow and manoeuvre in the darkness of a shaded creek / of a large cave, etc.).

So closing an eye so an light sensitive contact len worn inside the car / UV-sensitive contact len worn in a convertible doesn't darken and keeps you able to see and navigate your car in the darkness of a tunnel is *litteraly" driving like a pirate.

Re:Missing the point of contact lenses.

[cellocgw]

Contact Lenses are primarily for vanity purposes.

You must have paid someone to type what you said, because nobody that stupid could handle a computer. Contact lenses provide drastically better vision, over a full field of view, without secondary reflections, without distortion, without stress on nose or ears... ahhh, forget it. You're beyond help.