We may not be getting X-ray vision like Superman anytime soon, but it’s time for us to get super vision.
To make this super-vision or near-infrared (NIR) vision a possibility, materials scientists and neuroscientists have developed contact lenses1 that allow infrared vision in mice as well as in humans. This has been achieved by converting infrared (IR) light into the light that we can see.
Infrared (IR) light is a type of electromagnetic radiation that has wavelengths longer than visible light but shorter than those of microwaves.
The visible light spectrum ranges from about 400 to 700 nanometers (nm), and within this range, different colors have different wavelengths, with red having the longest and violet having the shortest.
Beyond the visible spectrum, infrared (IR) wavelengths are within the range of 750 nm to 2.5 μm (micrometers). The wavelength of near-infrared (NIR) light is in the 800-1600 nm range.
Then there’s Ultraviolet (UV), which has shorter wavelengths than visible light, ranging from 10 nm to 400 nm. The wavelength range of X-rays is roughly 0.01 to 10 nanometers.
So, the contact lenses created by scientists enable their wearers to see many infrared wavelengths that our naked eyes cannot. Also, they don’t need a power source either, as infrared night vision goggles do.
Given the fact that these lenses are transparent, the user can actually see visible as well as infrared light at the same time. The infrared vision actually gets enhanced when users close their eyes. According to senior author Tian Xue, who’s a neuroscientist at the University of Science and Technology of China:
“Our research opens up the potential for non-invasive wearable devices to give people super-vision.”
The new technology created here is the wearable near-infrared (NIR) upconversion contact lens (UCL) with biocompatibility, flexibility, hydrophilicity, and optical properties.
Talking about the “many” immediate potential applications of the material, Xue pointed to the usage of flickering infrared light for transmitting information in encryption, rescue, security, or anti-counterfeiting settings.
The study, as per the scientists, also opens the doors for polymeric materials’ usage in non-invasive near-infrared vision to assist humans in perceiving as well as transmitting spatial, temporal, and color dimensions of NIR light.
Breaking the Visual Barrier with NIR Contact Lenses
For humans to understand the world around them, they rely on their senses, including vision. But in order to utilize this sense, we need light.
Interestingly, there’s only a small fraction of the light that we can perceive. Over half of the solar radiation energy actually exists as infrared light and remains imperceptible to mammals, which include humans, rodents, bats, cats, lions, horses, orcas, otters, bears, and blue whales, among others.
Our perception limitation in the light spectrum is because of the physical thermodynamic properties of the photon-detecting opsins. As a result, we suffer a substantial loss of sensory information that could potentially be available to us.
Tools like night vision (NV) goggles or infrared-visible converters have allowed us to see beyond what our eyes can perceive. However, these objects need some kind of energy support to function. For instance, NV goggles utilize battery power, specifically lithium batteries, to provide them with extended life.
On top of this, these tools can’t differentiate between infrared information across multiple spectra. In the case of infrared-visible converters, each of these requires a multilayer structure, which makes them opaque and difficult to integrate with the human eye.
The team of scientists has actually previously achieved near-infrared vision in mice. They did so by injecting nanoparticles into their retina. But of course, the surgical invasiveness involved in the ocular injection of nanoparticles isn’t likely to be accepted by humans.
So, the team wanted to design a less invasive option to deliver NIR vision capabilities with the naked eye, which brought them to contact lenses.
To create the lenses, the team combined the upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) with flexible polymers that were non-toxic and used in standard soft contact lenses.
The team, of course, has to develop polymeric nanocomposites that are suitable for human eyes, having the appropriate optical transparency, mechanical properties, biocompatibility, and hydrophilicity, which is a material’s affinity to water.
While soft, transparent polymeric materials are already widely applied in this field, integrating nanoparticles in polymeric materials changes the polymer’s optical properties. So, the team modified nanoparticles and screened polymeric materials based on their refractive index matching.
As a result, the team developed NIR-light contact lenses with over 90% transparency across most wavelengths at a UCNP mass ratio of 7%.
When it comes to the biocompatibility of the nanoparticles, the team found that wearing these contact lenses for 3, 7, and 14 days did not cause any changes in retinal morphology, corneal thickness, or retinal inflammation response.
However, constant use does lead to a slight increase in corneal cell apoptosis after one and two weeks of wearing the lenses, something also seen with commercial contact lenses. As per the study, this was due to mechanical friction caused by wearing contact lenses, and UCLs did not exacerbate the effect.
Overall, the contact lens, as per the study, can help humans achieve super-vision through wearable nano-biomaterials, paving the way to numerous applications of human NIR spatiotemporal color vision.
Click here to learn how OLEDs are revolutionizing night vision.
Testing the Human-Compatible NIR Contact Lenses
The team then began testing the function of these lenses in both humans and mice and found that they could see infrared wavelengths.
When experimenting on mice, the scientists gave them the option of a dark box and a box illuminated with infrared light. While those wearing no contact lenses had no preference, mice who wore the lenses chose the dark box.
The in vivo electroretinography (ERG) recordings showed that UCLs did not interfere with normal vision with their high transparency. ERG is a diagnostic test that measures the retina’s electrical activity in response to a light stimulus.
To investigate the effect at the behavioral level, the lenses were secured onto the moving mice’s eyes by an eyelid suture, and then the team monitored the pupil size in order to detect the pupil light reflex.
The team found contact lens-wearing mice having constricted pupils in the presence of infrared light. Brain imaging also showed IR causing their visual processing centers to light up.
In the light-induced fear-conditioning experiment, near-infrared light induced freezing behavior in mice with lenses but not in mice without them, indicating that those with lenses can acquire the ability to sense NIR-mediated light.
After achieving non-invasive NIR vision in mice through contact lenses, the team then started testing it in humans.
For this, they conducted sensitivity tests for human perception of visible and NIR light in both dark and ambient light conditions. No differences were noticed in human perception sensitivity to visible light with or without lenses, indicating that they had no impact on normal human vision.
Participants wearing lenses were actually able to identify NIR light in the dark room. Sensitivity to NIR light remained about unchanged upon closing the eyes, but to visible light, it decreased more than 200-fold, which was due to NIR light’s ability to better penetrate through the eyelid.
According to Xue:
“It’s totally clear cut: without the contact lenses, the subject cannot see anything, but when they put them on, they can clearly see the flickering of the infrared light. We also found that when the subject closes their eyes, they’re even better able to receive this flickering information, because near-infrared light penetrates the eyelid more effectively than visible light, so there is less interference from visible light.”
Measuring the transmittance of the mouse eyelids of 535- and 980-nm light revealed it to be 0.388% and 23.292%, respectively, demonstrating that near-infrared light can be “transmitted stealthily even through closed eyes.”
Meanwhile, in ambient light conditions, human participants were still able to perceive NIR light. Interestingly, under this background, participants’ sensitivity to NIR light jumped by 3.7-fold when they closed their eyes, while that of visible light decreased by 4.5-fold. This could be due to closed eyes reducing the input of ambient visible light while increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of near-infrared light detection.
Real-World Applications and the Future
The research found that contact lenses allow humans to correctly identify flashing Morse code-like signals. They were even able to recognize the incoming NIR light’s direction.
The users were even able to differentiate between different spectra of infrared light thanks to an adjustment to the contact lenses. This included engineering the nanoparticles to color-code different infrared wavelengths.
To distinguish multiple spectra of NIR light, the team replaced the conventional UCNPs with trichromatic orthogonal UCNPs (tUCLs), which can convert near-infrared light into visible light in three different spectral bands.
Infrared wavelengths of 808 nm were converted to green light, 980 nm to blue light, and 1,532 nm to red light.
These tUCLs allowed the team to achieve the near-infrared color vision in humans, showcasing potential in encoding more abundant information, specifically in the 800 – 1,600 nm range. In this range, NIR effectively penetrates biological tissues rich in water, such as the eyelids and corneas, thereby enhancing NIR vision and biological imaging.
The study noted that until now, studies haven’t truly achieved human NIR color vision, with their practical application being limited due to the high-power NIR-light requirements and low concentrations of nanoparticle doping, which the scientists overcame through effective optimization of the refractive index of nanoparticles and hydrogels. This way, the research advanced the development of trichromatic orthogonal particles for biological visual sensation and recognition.
This enabled users to perceive more detail within the infrared spectrum. Notably, these color-coding nanoparticles could be altered to help color-blind people see wavelengths that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise.
“By converting red visible light into something like green visible light, this technology could make the invisible visible for color blind people.”
– Xue
The team has also built a glass system by utilizing the same tech that enables wearers to perceive more detailed infrared information. This overcomes the limited ability of contact lenses to capture fine details, which is due to their close proximity to the retina, causing the converted light particles to scatter.
According to the scientists, their technology has various potential applications, including enhanced vision in dusty, foggy, and other low-visibility conditions, as well as integration into smart devices for emergency use.
While powerful, the study has several limitations, including the use of relatively low light intensities. The soft, wearable, and non-invasive contact lenses can only detect IR radiation being projected from an LED light source.
The researchers, however, are working to increase the sensitivity of nanoparticles so that they can detect even lower levels of infrared light. Also, it still opens the door to a richly informative, colorful NIR world that can be directly perceived by humans.
“In the future, by working together with materials scientists and optical experts, we hope to make a contact lens with more precise spatial resolution and higher sensitivity.”
– Xue
Investing in Optical Innovation
In the world of advanced vision technologies, Corning Incorporated (GLW +3.23%) is known for being a global leader in specialty glass and optical materials.
An innovator in materials science, Corning operates through several segments, including:
- Display Technologies, which manufactures glass substrates for flat-panel displays.
- Optical Communications, which focuses on network components for the telecommunications industry.
- Specialty Materials, which produces products for the formulation of fluoride crystals, glass, and glass ceramics.
- Environmental Technologies, which is involved in manufacturing filters and ceramic substrates for emission control systems in mobile applications
- Life Sciences, which supplies laboratory products
Corning Incorporated (GLW +3.23%)
With a market cap of $42.4 billion, Corning Inc.’s shares are currently enjoying an upside of 4.15% YTD as they trade at $49.57. At the current price level, GLW is up almost 30% from its April low and is only about 9% off its peak, which it hit late in January this year.
With that, its EPS (TTM) is 0.52, the P/E (TTM) is 95.12, and ROE (TTM) is 4.14%. A 2.26% dividend yield is also offered to GLW shareholders.
Corning Incorporated (GLW +3.23%)
When it comes to Corning’s financials, it reported “strong” Q1 2025 results. During this period, the company’s core sales were up 13% YoY to $3.68 billion while Core EPS surged 42% YoY to $0.54 and gross margin was 37.9%, reflecting a 110-basis-point YoY improvement. This strong growth comes despite tariffs causing a market-wide disturbance.
“We’re well-positioned to maintain momentum despite a dynamic external environment because our growth is underpinned by powerful secular trends that are underway today.”
– CEO Wendell P. Weeks
Corning’s enterprise sales grew 106%, driven by continued strong demand for new products for Gen AI. Commenting on this, Weeks noted:
“We’re seeing remarkable customer response to both our innovations for Gen AI data centers and our U.S.-made solar products, and we are accelerating our production ramps for both.”
So, for Q2, the company is forecasting “continued strong” growth, with its core sales expected to be about $3.85 billion. Corning is actually predicting its core EPS again to grow “significantly faster than sales” to between $0.55 to $0.59.
Earlier this year, the company upgraded its growth strategy called the Springboard plan, under which it aims to add more than $4 billion in annualized sales and achieve a 20% operating margin by the end of next year.
“We’re making great progress on Springboard across the company. Our strategies are working, and our customers are loving our innovations.”
– Weeks
Earlier this month, the world leader in glass science and optical physics collaborated with leading semiconductor company Broadcom Incorporated (AVGO +3.03%) on a CPO (co-packaged optics) infrastructure to boost data centers’ processing capacity and take AI to the next level.
“As AI-enabled data centers continue to scale, Corning has been collaborating with Broadcom to ensure CPO connectivity needs are met with a high degree of performance and reliability.”
– Benoit Fleury, Director, CPO Business Development, Corning Optical Communications.
Under this collaboration, Corning will provide optical components for Broadcom’s CPO-based 51.2 TBps Ethernet switch to deliver better optical interconnection density and reduce power costs.
This Bailly CPO system from Broadcom incorporates eight silicon photonics-based, 6.4 TBps optical engines co-packed with the company’s StrataXGS® Tomahawk®5 Ethernet switch chip. “The explosive growth of AI workloads is driving unprecedented demands on interconnect bandwidth,” said Sheng Zhang, CTO of the Optical Systems Division at Broadcom, who added that this multi-year partnership with Corning has “resulted in breakthrough performance at scale.”
Conclusion
Technological advances are constantly pushing the boundaries of what is possible, especially when it comes to human capabilities. Contact lenses are one such advancement that was first created over a century ago to provide a more natural and unobstructed view of the world. Now, scientists are making these popular alternatives to eyeglasses even more powerful by introducing infrared vision into them.
These new contact lenses utilize nanoparticles that absorb IR and then convert it into wavelengths visible to mammalian eyes. The nanoparticles were particularly able to detect near-infrared light, which is just beyond what humans can see.
The development of wearable, non-invasive infrared vision contact lenses promises to take human vision to a new dimension. From secure communication and night-time navigation to biological imaging and assisting the color blind, this technology aims to completely transform how we perceive and interact with our environment, but more importantly, it makes the invisible visible.
Click here to learn about the next-gen imaging techniques with infrared quantum dots.
Studies Referenced:
1. Ma, Y., Chen, Y., Wang, S., Chen, Z.-H., Zhang, Y., Huang, L., Zhang, X., Yin, F., Wang, Y., Yang, M., Li, Z., Huang, K., Fang, X., Li, Z., Wang, M., Liu, W., Li, J.-N., Li, L., Zhao, H., Wei, M., Shi, Y., Liu, R., Zhang, M., Chen, J., Shen, J., Meng, J., Yang, Y., Zhang, F., Gong, X., Han, G., & Xue, T. (2025). Near-infrared spatiotemporal color vision in humans enabled by upconversion contact lenses. Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.04.019