Smart Eyeglass Lens To Slow Down Vision Loss In The Making

“Insights into the link between the optical properties of myopia progression management lenses and effectiveness in real-world scenarios will pave the way to more effective treatments. This could help millions of children and is fundamental in understanding the mechanisms by which these lenses work,” says Dr. Augusto Arias-Gallego, the lead author of the study from the University of Tubingen.

The researchers from  ZEISS Vision Science Lab at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, and the University of Murcia, in Spain, have been working on developing smart glasses that are designed to help slow down the progression of vision loss and combat myopia/nearsightedness. The team developed new instruments/techniques to assess light focusing properties of the specialized lenses, the data is hoped to better inform future lens designs to be more effective at preventing visual decline. 

“After exploring the state of the art, we didn’t find a method that could be used to characterize the optical properties of these eyeglass lenses under real viewing conditions,” said Arias-Gallego. “Therefore, we developed a new instrument that can measure the lens’s optical response to different angles of illumination while reproducing the myopic eye’s pupil and refractive errors.”

“By combining the through-focus results with light-scattering measurements, we were able to accurately characterize several types of eyeglass lenses,” said Arias. “We then compared our measurements for each lens with their reported clinical efficacy for slowing myopia progression. The results raised new questions that need to be studied further while also pointing to potential strategies that could increase the efficacy of future designs.”

The Brien Holden Vision Institute in Australia suggests that the incidence of myopia is continuing to increase around the globe, and current trends indicate that half of the world’s population could be affected by 2050. Studies have demonstrated how specialized lenses have been able to prevent the condition from worsening, which is critical to children who often experience myopia worsening with age. Progression of the condition can increase the likelihood of other eye problems as well as irreversible blindness.