The one drawback: the contacts cause glaucoma.

Tim Faulkner

can i see through that????

UofITom

my music teacher has glaucoma, it's not reversible, but you can take medicine to slow it down, it's not like if you don't catch it soon enough your entire vision is shot, it blinds you slowly

kyel57

If I get this, I want them to make that sound effect from the Million Dollar Man every time I move.

Dreadfish

I heard that smoking pot helps prevent glaucoma so I liberally applied this method back in the day.
You know, just for medicinal reasons. ;)

Curves

I'm 32 years old and I have Glaucoma, currently it is in a treated phase. I don't see a use for these contacts, if you are someone who has to see an eye doctor for getting prescription for glasses or contacts, you already get tested for high pressures. If you do not normally get your eyes checked once a year, you're at the biggest risk of going blind from glaucoma.

Glaucoma causes blindness because the ducts that relieve pressure in your eye stop functioning correctly. This pressure begins to press in on your blood vessels causing the blood to stop flowing to your optic nerve, killing the tissue and causing blindness.

As for treating the glaucoma with drops or medicine, that's an option but you can also choose to have the ducts in your eyes laser treated in order to get them functioning correctly. This laser treatment does not involve any burning or cutting, it merely generates a reaction in the ducts that causes them to function better. Treatment has to be reapplied every 6 years or so, much better then daily drops.

This contact doesn't seem to address the issue that people like myself may have, a very thin cornea. If your cornea is thinner then normal, pressure tests may register in the normal range when in fact you are are a much higher risk of glaucoma. Currently the only way to have the thickness of your cornea tested is with the use of an optical ultra sound.

I'm lucky, the only reason my glaucoma was detected so early an successfully was because the pressure in my left eye was always much higher then the right (They should be the same or close). I think the best prevention to people going blind from glaucoma is having your eyes checked regularly, weather you need a perscription or not.

KryptonZero

@Tim Faulkner: That's the feature, they cause it, to prove it works. So it has 100% success rate.

aliskaba

Really, they are xray specs for the hot chicks.

aliskaba

When they detect glaucoma, do they automatically print out a prescription for some anti-glaucoma "medicine?" If so, how do I fake glaucoma with these things?

badhatharry

I DON'T CARE what Wikipedia says, PDMS is a silicone and therefore not an "organic" polymer. Organic means it's got a carbon backbone.

Also, it's not the PDMS that's detecting pressure changes, it's the silver circuitry overlay.

Xenobiologista

@KryptonZero: Wow, reading that made my eyes feel funny. Ha.

Jagged Toaster

This is really amazing (coming from someone who is REALLY at risk for glaucoma).

bobx3

Oh, I thought that the headline meant that it would diagnose you and then make you go blind.... heh

LagmastaC