Chinese researchers have developed soft and flexible contact lenses that can perceive infrared light with the naked eye. The wearable technology converts near-infrared light into visible range, allowing humans to recognize spatial patterns and time-based signals.
The contact lenses contain nanoparticles that absorb near-infrared light and upconvert it into visible light. Tests showed that the lenses could convert infrared light of differing intensities into visible light and produced a high concentration of nanoparticles while maintaining transparency.
In trials with living mice, the researchers found that near-infrared light generated the same visual response as would normally be expected for visible wavelengths. Human volunteers also demonstrated improved sensitivity to infrared light when their eyes were closed, allowing them to recognize simple shapes and decode timed sequences of flashing lights.
The researchers modified the design of the nanoparticles to convert near-infrared light into red, green, and blue light. Contact lenses produced with these nanoparticles enabled participants to discern three primary colors in the near infrared, improving their ability to interpret complete sentences from flashing light sequences.
While light scattering limits the fine detail capture of the contact lenses, wearable glasses developed using the same nanoparticle technology enable high-resolution infrared information and simple colored patterns recognition. The researchers believe that this technology can be further engineered for non-invasive wearables with super-vision capabilities, including color blindness correction.
Source: https://www.optica-opn.org/home/newsroom/2025/may/infrared_contacts_promise_super-human_vision