Micro Fenestrated Contact Lens for Strabismus Camouflage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current surgical treatments for sensory strabismus are often unsatisfactory, leading to temporary realignment and potential double vision, while non-surgical approaches like occlusion therapy completely eliminate vision from the deviated eye, failing to address the need for a cosmetic and functional solution.
Innovation Solution
A contact lens with a fenestrated printing of a pupil, iris, and conjunctiva/sclera pattern, featuring tiny transparent regions that camouflage the misaligned eye while allowing partial vision, achieved by photographing the eye, overlaying with a fenestrated image, and printing it onto the lens to align with the healthy eye, ensuring the deviated eye remains obscured from observers yet functional for the wearer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If occlusion therapy is used to treat strabismus, then cosmetic appearance is improved, but visual function is completely eliminated
Solution Approach 1:
The contact lens is divided into multiple functional zones: opaque regions for cosmetic camouflage and transparent fenestrated regions for visual function. This segmentation allows different parts of the lens to serve different purposes simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between cosmetic appearance and visual function.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the contact lens have different optical properties - some areas are opaque to provide cosmetic coverage while other areas are transparent to allow vision. This local differentiation of properties enables the lens to satisfy both cosmetic and functional requirements in different locations.
2Shape
If surgical treatment is used to correct strabismus, then ocular alignment is improved, but stability and reliability are worsened due to temporary realignment and potential double vision
Solution Approach 1:
The contact lens creates a visual copy or illusion of proper ocular alignment by displaying an image of a normally aligned eye on the lens surface. This optical illusion provides immediate cosmetic correction without the risks and instability associated with surgical realignment.
3Shape
If a fully opaque contact lens is used to camouflage the deviated eye, then cosmetic appearance is improved, but visual field is completely blocked
Solution Approach 1:
The contact lens is divided into multiple functional zones: opaque regions for cosmetic camouflage and transparent fenestrated regions for visual function. This segmentation allows different parts of the lens to serve different purposes simultaneously, resolving the contradiction between cosmetic appearance and visual function.
Solution Approach 2:
The contact lens incorporates a fenestrated structure with numerous tiny transparent openings distributed across the lens surface. This porous-like structure allows light to pass through while maintaining the overall cosmetic appearance, enabling both camouflage and vision.
Data Source
AI summary
A sclera or contact lens with an image of an eye that is fenestrated, or uniformly speckled with many sub-millimeter sized transparent regions or holes, is disclosed. The micro fenestrated contact lens can be worn on a strabismic, or misaligned, eye so that its image is aligned with the wearer's dominant eye. The fenestrations allow the wearer to see through the opaque or translucent image printed on the contact lens, thus allowing binocular vision even though his or her strabismic eye is covered.