In short-sighted people this will bring the retina forward to intersect with the focused light, making far-off images sharp and clear again. In long-sighted people this pushes the retina backwards, bringing close-up objects back into focus.Įxpanding the eye band causes the eyeball to shorten. Tightening the smart eye band causes the eyeball to elongate, just as squeezing the middle of a peeled hard-boiled egg causes the egg to lengthen. Conversely, if the eyeball is too long, the light will focus in front of the retina, yielding the blurry images of far-off objects characteristic of short-sightedness. If the cornea or lens do not focus strongly enough or the eyeball is too short, the light will focus behind the retina, blurring images of close-up objects. The lens compensates by adjusting its strength to bring the focus back onto the retina. The closer an object is, the farther back in the eye it will be focused. Light travels through the cornea and lens to focus on the retina at the back of the eyeball. Most of the eye’s focusing is done by the cornea, the hard transparent surface that covers both the pupil and the iris the lens is responsible only for fine-tuning. It will be stitched to the sclera, the tough white outer part of the eyeball, and activated by an electromagnet in a hearing-aid-sized unit fitted behind one ear. Mohsen Shahinpoor and his team at the University of New Mexico call their artificial muscle a “smart eye band”. How artificial muscles put the squeeze on poor sight

While the idea has a high ‘yuk’ factor, the people behind it are confident it will be a safe and effective way to improve vision. The tap would tighten a band of artificial muscle wrapped round your eyeballs, changing their shape and bringing blurry images into focus. A light tap on the side of your head could one day restore your eyesight, believe scientists.

Eyeballs touching