Exciting news for anyone with contact lenses – you could soon see in the dark

The new contact lenses allows wearers to not only see in the dark and creates super vision (Image: Getty)

It may sound like something right out of a comic book but scientists have created contact lenses which give the wearers clear sight, even in the dark. These latest “night vision” contact lenses use nanoparticles which help absorb infrared light, converting it into wavelengths which then becomes visible to the human eye. In fact, these groundbreaking contact lenses allows wearers to not only see in the dark, but also works when a person’s eyes are closed too, granting a wearer with “super vision”.

These lenses, created by scientists at the University of Science and Technology of China, differ from night vision goggles as they don’t require any power source while still giving the wearer the ability to see infrared light. This breakthrough could see the beginning of more wearables which work by extending vision range and may even help those with colour blindness. 

The lenses use nanoparticles which help absorb infrared light converting it into wavelengths (Image: Getty)

These futuristic lenses could create "super vision" for the wearers, says researchers, with this latest breakthrough likely to extend beyond human vision and its capabilities of only seeing in a natural range.

Senior author from the University of Science and Technology in China, Professor Tian Xu said: “Our research opens up the potential for non-invasive wearable devices to give people super-vision.

“There are many potential applications right away for this material.

“For example, flickering infrared light could be used to transmit information in security, rescue, encryption or anti-counterfeiting settings.”

The breakthrough could mean more non-invasive wearable devices to give people super-vision (Image: Getty)

The technology behind these new contact lenses is powered with nanoparticles which absorb light humans can’t see and then convert this light into wavelengths which then become visible, roughly 380 to 700 nanometres.

But by using nanoparticles specifically, detection of “near-infrarer light” is achieved allowing for vision beyond what humans already see and increasing the nanometre range from 800 to 1600.

Previous studies on mice showed how these nanoparticles boost infrared vision when they were injected into the retina producing astounding results that sparked the research team to find a less invasive solution of implementing this into humans.

Professor Xue explained: “It's totally clear cut: without the contact lenses, the subject cannot see anything, but when they put them on, they can clearly see the flickering of the infrared light.

Researchers worked on combining the nanoparticles with non-toxic polymers which are used in standard contact lenses with tests revealing that the lenses allowed wearers to spot infrared signals even in pitch blackness.

Not only that, researchers noted how wearers of these new lenses were also able to see far better even with their eyes shut as it helped to block out any interference on the normal visibility spectrum.

Secret messages sent by infrared light were also noted to only be visible for those wearing these contact lenses, Xue added.

“If materials scientists can develop upconversion nanoparticles with higher efficiency, it may become possible to see surrounding infrared light using contact lenses.”

Those suffering with colour blindness may also benefit from these futuristic contact lenses using a similar approach of converting wavelengths not visible and turning them into hues that are visible.