that glitzy golden eye ...... !!

Long ago, in a local conflict a friend was slapped on the face, he cowed down and was very nervous – started searching for something – later on the floor, he could locate that tiny object, fortunately not trampled and with no scratches.  It was his ‘contact lens’.  A contact lens, or simply contact, is a thin lens placed directly on the surface of the eye. Contact lenses are considered medical devices and can be worn to correct vision, or for cosmetic or therapeutic reasons.

‘Operation Goldeneye’  was an Allied plan during World War II, which was to monitor Spain after a possible alliance between Francisco Franco and the Axis powers and to undertake sabotage operations.  Goldeneye or whistler (Bucephala clangula) is a species of small tree-hole nesting northern hemisphere seaducks belonging to the genus Bucephala. Goldeneyes eat fish, crustaceans, and other marine life. The "whistler" name comes from the noise their beating wings make in flight.  They are  medium sized diving ducks. Males look black and white with a greenish black head and a circular white patch in front of the yellow eye. Females are smaller… In every party, people try to grab attention in many ways – women try to dress themselves to glory, wearing choicest attire, bold earrings, dazzling jewellery and more ……..

Golden Eye (1995) is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 officer James Bond.  It was released in 1995 after a six-year hiatus in the series caused by legal disputes, during which Timothy Dalton resigned from the role of James Bond and was replaced by Pierce Brosnan. M was also recast, with actress Judi Dench becoming the first woman to portray the character, replacing Robert Brown. GoldenEye was the first Bond film made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which provided a background for the plot.  The name "GoldenEye" paid  homage to James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming who was part of that operation Goldeneye in Spain. 

Recently read about ‘wink-activated telescopic contact lenses’ that  give your eyes 2.8x optical zoom ~ there have been techno-enhancement to hearing, now  Swedish optics researcher Eric Tremblay claims of providing contact lens with the ability to zoom in on stuff that one is looking at.  It is stated that the lenses work by incorporating a very thin reflective telescope inside a 1.55mm thick contact lens. Small mirrors positioned inside of this lens capture light before it enters your eye and bounce it around, expanding the perceived size of objects and magnifying your view up to 2.8 times. It’s sort of  having low-resolution binoculars directly on your eye.

The first generation of these zoom lenses were designed specifically for people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), so the magnification was always on. The only way to deactivate the eagle vision was to remove the contacts from your eyeballs, which wasn’t exactly ideal.  Now,  after two years of careful adjustments, the lenses have oxygen permeability i.e., the  tiny air channels (roughly 0.1mm wide) within the lenses  allow oxygen to reach the surface of the eye making  them more comfortable, less fatiguing, and more usable in daily life.

That is not all -  Mailonline reports of an Indian Doctor infusing contact lenses with 24 carat Gold to create that ultimate glitzy look !  Indian women are lured by that yellow metal and wear lot of gold jewellery – but adding glamour to look by adding gold to eye is unimaginable !   A Mumbai Doctor has done just that by creating contact lenses infused with nano gold particles. Dr Chandrashekhar Chawan fused the gold with regular contact lenses to create a 'glitter' effect for wearers.  The 24-carat particles were added to the normal eyewear at Shekhar Eye Research India in a specialised paste form.

In order to avoid contact between the eyes and the gold, an extra layer is applied.  Several customers showed off their glittering and spell-binding eyes in Dr Chawan's office.  The gold flecks are added to the contact lenses in a specialised paste format; each contact weighs 5g and it is not known whether the tiny gold flecks affect vision. ….. and if that wasn't luxurious enough, the same doctor has also created contact lenses infused with diamonds. Describing his diamond contact lenses to USA Today, Dr Chawan said: ' I got mixed responses - some said it looks scary, but most of the people loved it.'

Some experts in the US have expressed safety fears over the lenses, which Dr Chawan hopes to sell outside of India. Some say the bulky lenses used in orders to protect the eye from the gold are not ideal and they are yet to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration.  Not aimed at common man, the cost of having ultimate sparkling eyes would be around Rs.10 lakhs + approx……

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

17^th Feb 2015.