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Scientists create contact lenses that zoom when you blink twice

Me: Accidentally blinks twice while driving.

Mark Serrels Editorial Director
Mark Serrels is an award-winning Senior Editorial Director focused on all things culture. He covers TV, movies, anime, video games and whatever weird things are happening on the internet. He especially likes to write about the hardships of being a parent in the age of memes, Minecraft and Fortnite. Definitely don't follow him on Twitter.
Mark Serrels
Contact Lens

Enhance!

Thomas Trutschel

It is absolutely the stuff of science fiction: a contact lens that zooms on your command.

But scientists at the University of California San Diego have gone ahead and made it a reality. They've created a contact lens, controlled by eye movements, that can zoom in if you blink twice.

How is this possible? In the simplest of terms, the scientists measured the electrooculographic signals generated when eyes make specific movements (up, down, left, right, blink, double blink) and created a soft biomimetic lens that responds directly to those electric impulses. The lens created was able to change its focal length depending on the signals generated.

Therefore the lens could literally zoom in the blink of an eye.

Read: Best places to buy prescription glasses online in 2019    

Incredibly, the lens works regardless of whether the user can see or not. It's not about the sight, it's about the electricity produced by specific movements.

Why create this? Why the hell not. The researchers believe this innovation could be used in "visual prostheses, adjustable glasses, and remotely operated robotics in the future," but I'm waiting for them to turn up on CSI Miami. Could you imagine the crimes Ice-T could solve on Law and Order wearing these things?

Zoom. Enhance.

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