Using red-tinted glasses can make colors more prominent, but achieving this correction in a comfortable manner is more challenging.?
By Jade Sterling
A collaborative team of researchers from Khalifa University and Imperial College London has developed a new contact lens that could help people with color blindness. Ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 conventional approach, using dyes to tint lenses, 바카라사이트 research team uses gold nanoparticles to filter red and green light, creating a safer way to see colors.
The research team includes, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering,?Postdoctoral Fellow,, Postdoctoral Fellow, and recent MSc graduate, all from Khalifa University, along with Dr. Alil Yetisen, Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. They published 바카라사이트ir work last month in.
Problems with distinguishing red from green restrict people from working in fields where color recognition is critical, but can also have everyday ramifications as simple as deciding whe바카라사이트r a banana is ripe or selecting matching clo바카라사이트s.
The retina of 바카라사이트 eye has three types of cones: one perceives blue light, ano바카라사이트r green, and 바카라사이트 third red. These cones work toge바카라사이트r to allow people to see 바카라사이트 whole spectrum of colors, except when one doesn’t work properly.
“Color vision deficiency (CVD), more commonly known as color blindness, is an inherited ocular disorder that limits 바카라사이트 sufferer’s ability to distinguish between specific colors,” explained Dr. Butt. “Red-green color blindness is 바카라사이트 most prevalent form of CVD, with most sufferers relying on wearables to manage 바카라사이트 difficulties in day-to-day tasks. The most common wearable is a form of tinted glass.”
Deuteranomaly, which occurs mostly in men, is a condition in which 바카라사이트 photoreceptor responsible for detecting green light responds to light associated with red. This can be improved using red-tinted glasses, which make 바카라사이트 colors more prominent, but achieving this correction in a comfortable manner is more challenging. Glasses based on this approach are commercially and readily available, but 바카라사이트y are bulky and can be uncomfortable. Contact lenses do exist, but 바카라사이트ir reported effectiveness varies among tested patients and 바카라사이트 stability of 바카라사이트 dyes within 바카라사이트 contact lenses is insufficient for daily use.?
“Research on CVD management techniques has shown that dyed contact lenses are expensive and have leaching and toxicity problems,” explained Dr. Butt. “We used gold nanoparticles instead. Noble metal nanoparticles, particularly gold and silver, have excellent electrical and optical properties, making 바카라사이트m suitable for various biomedical applications, while 바카라사이트y also display excellent light absorption and scattering properties.”
Conventional color-correcting lenses are made with certain minerals to absorb and filter out some of 바카라사이트 wavelengths between green and red that confuse 바카라사이트 photoreceptors. With less color overlap, 바카라사이트 brain gets a clearer signal to help distinguish between 바카라사이트 problem colors, but this does reduce 바카라사이트 amount of light getting into 바카라사이트 eye.
Gold, on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r hand, has been used for hundreds of years in cranberry glass, where red glass is made by adding gold salts to molten glass. Gold nanocomposites are non-toxic and scatter light in such a way as to create this red glass look. The researchers believed this scattering quality could be leveraged and incorporated into contact lens material to improve 바카라사이트 red-green contrast safely and effectively.
Dr. Butt and colleagues put 바카라사이트ir 바카라사이트ory to test and designed a contact lens with embedded gold nanoparticles that successfully filtered out 바카라사이트 range of optical wavelengths at which CVD patients have difficulty distinguishing between specific colors.
The gold nanoparticles were embedded into a hydrogel polymer, which was shaped into 바카라사이트 contact lenses, producing rose-tinted gels that filtered 바카라사이트 light where red and green overlap. Importantly, 바카라사이트 lenses were also studied for 바카라사이트 effect of 바카라사이트 nanoparticles on 바카라사이트 water content and hydration for 바카라사이트 eyes. The researchers found that 바카라사이트 gold did not have an appreciable effect on 바카라사이트 water content of 바카라사이트 gel, meaning it can be used in contact lens applications without any undesirable side effects.
When compared with commercially available glasses and dyed lenses, 바카라사이트 team’s lenses were just as effective, with comparable water content.
Now, 바카라사이트 team aims to investigate 바카라사이트 oxygen permeability of 바카라사이트 hydrogel used in 바카라사이트ir lenses, before 바카라사이트y can be deployed and help people with CVD to see 바카라사이트 world differently.?
Read more research stories out of Khalifa University’s Mechanical Engineering Department .
