PolyU Invents New Glasses To Ease Short-sightedness

Researchers and engineers from Polytechnic University on Wednesday said they have invented a new type of spectacle lens that can slow down the progression of myopia - or short-sightedness - in children and teenagers.

They said they have developed glasses with ring-like structures on the surface to achieve an effect called "myopic defocus" in order to regulate human eye growth, and the glasses are suitable for those between the ages of six and 18.

Professor To Chi-ho from PolyU's optometry school said wearing the glasses eight hours a day can ease short-sightedness by 60 percent.

Jackson Leung, the director of a PolyU-supported start-up that co-develops the glasses, said they have been making contact lenses using the same optical principle, but the new glasses will be suitable for more children with myopia.

"More children can benefit from this product, because there is a restriction with contact lenses. Contact lenses cannot correct astigmatism," he said.

"They will have similar results because they use similar optical designs. I have very high confidence that the myopia control efficacy will be up to 60 percent, similar to the contact lenses."

Leung said 10 children with myopia have been wearing the glasses for eight months in a trial, and they only reported minimal progression in their short-sightedness.