These New 3D-Printed Glasses Could Cure Color Blindness

Researchers from Khalifa University have stepped up to develop this brand-new wearable for people having color blindness issues. Colour blindness is no doubt a challenge in today’s technological world, and different methods are available to date that includes the use of dyes and different types of lenses to cater to this issue. However, to optimize the concept of color blindness, this research team has achieved a milestone by deploying 3D-printed glasses. For this purpose, two filtered dyes were used, which have been hued with translucent resin in order to start the fabrication of the lenses. The research has been deemed a success and was published in Advanced Engineering Materials.

It has to be noted that the retina of our eyes consists of three types of cones particularly those that can easily differentiate between blue, green, and red light. However, this ability to differentiate and see these colors can be hindered when people have been detected by a color vision deficiency (CVD) in which the special pigment molecule is not present on the retina that primarily determines different colors. The most widely known CVD is “red-green color blindness” and people can usually manage it by wearing wearables like tinted glasses that enable them to easily perform their daily chores.

Coupled with this, the research team comprised of  Dr. Haider Butt, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Fahad Alam, Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Mohamed Elsherif, Postdoctoral Fellow, and Ahmed Salih who performed exceptionally well in coming out with this incredible wearable. According to Dr. Butt, “Patient-specific customization of glasses for CVD remains a challenge, even though research has significantly advanced the properties and materials of CVD wearables available on the market.”

Talking about this, deuteranomaly is one of the main types of CVD and it is usually found in men that affects the ability of the photoreceptor to differentiate between green and red light. The researchers said that the condition can be cured by wearing red-tinted glasses so that the visibility of colors can be optimized through the process. It should be noted that by using dyes of specific wavelengths, photoreceptors become able to respond in a much more effective way because they can then easily differentiate between those colors that were previously causing anomalies.

To that end, the team decided to incorporate two dyes for two types of patients i.e., red-green patients and for yellow-blue patients. It has to be noted that these two dyes easily block the unnecessary wavelengths for their designated patients. Moreover, to give a more customized and simpler look to the glasses, the team used 3D printing for the frames and in this way, these super cool glasses are now on their way to making lives easier for color blind people.

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