A new device funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) may help people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

A new "smart" contact lens is designed to magnify by 2.8 times helping make objects far away easier to read such as road signs. Researchers at Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) developed the lenses to work with LCD polarized glasses that would adjust the zoom based on a blink of a left or right eye.

The contacts are slight thicker than regular contacts and have to be removed every 30 minutes because the lens is not permeable.  Addressing the issue of oxygen flow to the eye is considered the next major challenge.

Read the full release of the concept HERE

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Ceudy Gutierrez reads a book to her 2-year-old son, Matias, at their home in Buford, GA, on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025. Ceudy Gutierrez is struggling to make ends meet for herself and her three young kids following her husband’s ICE arrest earlier this fall. (Miguel Martinez/ AJC)

Credit: Miguel Martinez-Jimenez