smartplanet.com / Smart Business / Smart Takes

Artificial lens implant to give patients ‘high-definition’ vision, better than 20/20

By Andrew Nusca | Dec 4, 2009 |

Patients in the U.K. are having their eyes fitted with an artificial lens that allows them to see in “high definition.”

Surgeons implant the lens into the eye using the same type of procedure used for cataracts. Made from light-sensitive silicone, the lens can give patients vision better than 20/20, or what we call “perfect vision” for humans.

The lens, which can cure cataracts and far-sightedness, can be fine-tuned for focus. By shining ultraviolet light on parts of the lens, surgeons can change its shape and curvature and alter vision.

Bobby Qureshi is the first ophthalmic surgeon in the U.K. to use the lens.

“We have the potential here to change patients’ vision to how it was when they were young,” Qureshi told the U.K.’s Sky News. “The change is so accurate that we can even make the lens bifocal or varifocal, so as well as giving them good vision at distance we can give them good vision for reading.”

The lenses can accommodate for imperfections on the surface of a patient’s eye.

In a way, the lenses are like rewritable CD-ROM discs: they can be adjusted several times until perfected, and a final blast of UV light permanently fixes the lens’ shape.

 
Reply to Story

SmartPlanet TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Subscribe to this discussion via RSS

  •  
    1

    mhenriday

    12/04/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Artificial lens implant to give patients 'high-definition' vision, better than 20/20

    I fear that the limiting factor in 'chang[ing] patients' vison to how it was when they were young' lies not so much in the lens, as in the macula ; if methods can be found to reverse macula degeneration, that would really be a revolution. But kudos in any event to the developers of this lens-implantation technique !...

    Henri

  •  
    2

    stilt21

    12/04/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Artificial lens implant to give patients 'high-definition' vision, better than 20/20

    this is a great advance for vision, especially for those who have bad vision of any sort and for the old whose vision has deteriorated. especially good is the bifocal part.

    this is the rebuttal to the old chant that 'we have the best most inventive health care in the world', which is of course the political ******** given out by the dysfunctional senators who fight against changes

  •  
    3

    JTF243@...

    12/04/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Artificial lens implant to give patients 'high-definition' vision, better than 20/20

    In the article, it says "the lens can cure cataracts and far-sightedness". What about near-sightedness? You don't mention anything about severe myopia. I'm at the point where I can't keep the front and rear sights of a rifle in focus with the target. Will this procedure help that?
    ANDREW - side note - It may not happen this time but, all too often, when I click on the "Submit" button, an error occurs that crashes every open I.E. window and sends an error report to MS. (I.E. 6 on XP Pro)

  •  
    4

    patlillies@...

    12/05/09 | Report as spam

    Fixed focal length??

    It sounds like the lens is fixed focal length and using a bifocal approach to dealing with reading vs. distance. Is this correct. Multi-focal lenses are available that will allow it to adjust to different focal lengths in the same fashion as your original lens. JTF, Cataracts aren't cured/ They are removed along with your original lens. The cataract is embedded in it. This then replaces your lens. It sounds like near-sightedness is dealt with by tuning this as a bi-focal.

  •  
    5

    thinkhard

    12/05/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Artificial lens implant to give patients 'high-definition' vision, better than 20/20

    FYI, "20/20 vision" is NOT at all considered "perfect" vision for humans. Rather, 20/20 is just a subjective benchmark of normal vision acuity, not perfection. No one has "perfect" vision. If you did, you would be able to read, say, a newspaper from 1 mile away.

    Consider that many people have 20/15 or even 20/10 vision. Are they "beyond perfect"? Or course not.

  •  
    6

    Hobyx

    12/05/09 | Report as spam

    when do we get zoom lenses?

    I want to be able to zoom my vision. Telescopic.

  •  
    7

    bfilipiak@...

    12/07/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Artificial lens implant to give patients 'high-definition' vision, better than 20/20

    This is the first step toward a Borg like 'ocular implant'.

    Just imagine being able to really zoom in on some hottie on the beach!!!!!!

    The 'bad boy' in me can't wait.

  •  
    8

    pwalls@...

    12/07/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Artificial lens implant to give patients 'high-definition' vision, better than 20/20

    I have worn glasses since I was 8 years old, and have th start of cataracts. Where do I sign up?

  •  
    9

    dveed@...

    03/09/10 | Report as spam

    RE: Artificial lens implant to give patients 'high-definition' vision, better than 20/20

    I'm at the point where I can't keep the front and rear sights of a rifle in focus with the target. Will this procedure help that?
    Nothing will help that. It is not possible to focus on three different distances at the same time.

The following tags are supported in Smartplanet comments:
<b></b> <i></i> <u></u> <pre></pre>

Leave a Reply
  1. Name: You are currently: a Guest |
advertisement
Click Here

Quick Poll

advertisement

Active SmartPlanet

Blog Roll

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn't hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet. As a journalist based in New York City, he has written for Popular Mechanics and Men's Vogue and his byline has appeared in New York magazine, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog.

He is a New York University graduate and former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has been named "Howard Kurtz, Jr." by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. A native of Philadelphia, he lives in New York with his fiancée and his cat, Spats.

Follow him on Twitter

Andrew Nusca

Andrew J. Nusca does not hold any investments in the technology companies he covers.
Smart Takes is a regular digest of the day's news headlines viewed through a SmartPlanet lens, offering an editor's take on breaking stories and opinion from around the Web and highlighting information that will make you smarter.

About SmartPlanet | | Newsletters