A new high-performance contact lens (隐形眼镜) under development at the University of Heidelberg will not only correct ordinary vision faults but will improve normal night vision as much as five times making people's vision sharper than that of cats.
Bille and his team work with an instrument called an active mirror. Connected to a wave-front sensor that tracks and measures the course of a laser beam (激光束) into the eye, the aluminum mirror discovers the faults of the cornea (眼角膜) , the transparent protective layer covering the eyeball. The highly precise data from the two instruments, which, Bille hopes, will one day be found at the opticians (配镜师) all over the world—serve as a basis for the production of completely individualized contact lenses that correct and improve the wearer's vision.
By day, Bille's contact lenses will focus rays of light so accurately on the retina (视网膜). Lens wearers will be able to identify a face at a distance of 100 meters—80 meters farther than they would normally be able to see. At night, the lenses have an even greater potential. Normally, people can see a face at a distance of 5 metres. In his experiments night vision was improved by an even greater factor: in semi-darkness, test participants could see up to 15 times better than without the lenses.
Bille's lenses are expected to reach the market soon, and one tentative plan is to use the Internet to transmit information on patients' visual faults from the optician to the manufacturer, who will then produce and mail the contact lenses within a couple of days. The physicist expects the lenses to cost about a dollar a pair: about the same as conventional one-day disposable lenses.
