Well, here we go again with the mad roller coaster that is Science. A group of researchers want to bring spy thriller movies into life with their new work on a robotic contact lens that is controlled by small eye movements some of which include double blinks to zoom in or zoom out.

This may seem like a bluff from the next James Bond movie but stay with me here. Most soft robots are controlled manually from an external source or pre-programmed but these lenses mimic the natural electric signals dubbed “electro-oculographic signals” in the human eyeball that are active even when the eye itself is closed.

The scientists from the University of California San Diego measured the electro potential of the eye and then made lenses from polymers that would react to this activity.

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According to lead researcher Shengqiang Cai, “Even if your eye cannot see anything, many people can still move their eyeball and generate this electro-oculographic signal.” The electrodes that surround the eye are then used to control the lens like a muscle. As the study says, once the lens becomes more convex (curved), it then effectively zooms in.

Design of the biometric lens. Source: The Next Web

With time, the team hopes that this innovation could soon benefit in creating a prosthetic eye or a camera that can be controlled with eyes alone, which will be, to say the least, amazingly insane.

“The system developed in the current study has the potential to be used in visual prostheses, adjustable glasses, and remotely operated robotics in the future,” researchers wrote in the paper published in Advanced Functional Materials.