You won't need reading glasses any more. These adjustable lenses will be enough

Contact lenses have been a boon to many people who don't like wearing glasses. But lenses can also be a pain when you have only been prescribed reading glasses. You have to carry your glasses around and that one day you forget them, you have a tough time. But not anymore, an Indian origin researcher has now developed lenses that could potentially replace reading glasses. Devesh Mistry, a postgraduate research student in the School of Physics and Astronomy, at the University of Leeds, UK has designed adjustable lenses from the same material found in smartphones and TV screens. He claims that these lenses could improve vision in older people with presbyopia and also cataracts. As people age, their lenses lose flexibility and elasticity. This leads to a condition known as presbyopia, common in people over 45 years old, and can require optical aids, such as reading glasses.

Mistry is working with liquid crystal to create a truly adjustable artificial lens. 'As we get older, the lens in our eye stiffens, when the muscles in the eye contract they can no longer shape the lens to bring close objects into focus,' he said. 'Using liquid crystals, which we probably know better as the material used in the screens of TVs and smartphones, lenses would adjust and focus automatically , depending on the eye muscles' movement,' he added. (Read: 10 dos and don'ts for contact lens care)

Using these liquid crystal-based materials, Mistry's research is developing synthetic replacements for the diseased lens in the eye -a new generation of lenses and intraocular lens implants to rejuvenate sight. Mistry is researching and developing the lens in the lab and aims to have a prototype ready by the end of 2018. Within a decade, the research could see the new lens being implanted into eyes in a quick, straightforward surgical procedure under local anaesthetic. (Read: Revealed -- why contact lenses cause discomfort among users)