Infrared Contact Lens Helps People See in the Dark, Even With Their Eyes Closed

upstart writes:

Infrared contact lens helps people see in the dark, even with their eyes closed:

Researchers have developed a contact lens that can convert infrared light, which is normally invisible to our eyes, into visible light.

Because infrared light can pass through our eyelids, study participants wearing the contact lenses could see with their eyes shut.

The contact lenses can only give the wearer blurry infrared "sight", but the researchers say they're working on increasing resolution for uses like night vision.

Many people have wished for night vision on a dark walk home. But have you ever wondered if it's possible to see with your eyes closed?

Both are feasible with a contact lens that allows the wearer to see light that's usually invisible to our eyes - and can pass through our eyelids.

The infrared lens, which was developed by researchers in China, was unveiled in the journal Cell today.

Tian Xue, a neuroscientist at the University of Science and Technology of China and study co-author, said the material had the potential to give people "super-vision".

But in the shorter term, the team's ambitions are more modest.

"Flickering infrared light could be used to transmit information in security, rescue, encryption or anti-counterfeiting settings," Professor Xue said in a press release.

Our eye cells only register light in a small proportion of the electromagnetic spectrum.

If we could see longer wavelengths - just outside the visible spectrum into the near-infrared - we'd be able to see humans and other warm-blooded animals "glow" faintly as they emit infrared light.

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