Finding a better solution for visual disorders such as color blindness, a team of scientists from home and abroad have jointly devised a unique contact lens that surpasses current human visual capabilities. These contact lenses capture things even naked eyes cannot see, according to the researchers.

为了更好地解决色盲等视觉障碍，由国内外科学家组成的研究团队联合发明了一种独特的隐形眼镜，其性能超越了人类目前的视觉能力。据研究人员称，这种隐形眼镜能够捕捉肉眼无法看到的东西。

In their research, the scientists, including those from the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui province, and Fudan University in Shanghai, ingeniously combined rare earth particles emitting multiple fluorescent signals with contact lenses.

在这项研究中，来自安徽省合肥市的中国科学技术大学和上海市的复旦大学的科学家们巧妙地将发射多种荧光信号的稀土粒子与隐形眼镜结合在一起。

By wearing such special lenses, human eyes can perceive light beyond the visible spectrum into the near-infrared range, allowing individuals to access multi-dimensional information in terms of time, space, and color from near-infrared light.

通过佩戴这种特殊的隐形眼镜，人眼可以感知到可见光谱之外直至近红外波段的光，从而能够从近红外光中获取时间、空间和颜色等多维信息。

"With the aid of such invisible glasses, people can see things that were previously invisible to them," said Zhang Fan, one of the lead researchers on the team and a professor of chemistry from Fudan University.

“借助这种隐形眼镜，人们可以看到以前看不见的东西。”该团队的主要研究员之一、复旦大学化学教授张凡说道。

"And for individuals suffering from color blindness, by supplementing visible light information with near-infrared wavelengths, wearers can enhance their ability to differentiate between colors like red and green," he said.

他说：“对于色盲患者来说，通过在可见光信息中添加近红外波长，佩戴者可以增强区分红色和绿色等颜色的能力。”

The research results also hold vast application potentials in fields, such as information processing and visual assistance technologies, said the researchers.

研究人员表示，该研究成果在信息处理和视觉辅助技术等领域也具有巨大的应用潜力。

"For example, information encoding, transmission and decryption can all be carried out in the near-infrared band. If using near-infrared light to light up particular information such as patterns, only those who wear the special contact lenses can see the patterns, while those who don't will never see them as the near-infrared bands are outside the range of their visual perception," said Zhang.

“例如，信息的编码、传输和解密都可以在近红外波段进行。如果用近红外光照射特定的信息，比如图案，只有佩戴特殊隐形眼镜的人才能看到这些图案，而没有佩戴的人则永远看不到，因为近红外波段超出了他们的视觉感知范围。”张凡说道。

Scientists explained that there are cone cells on human's retina that respond specifically to the primary colors of red, green and blue. The proportion of activation in these cells responding to the three colors determines the colors that people see.

科学家解释说，人类视网膜上存在专门对红、绿、蓝三原色做出反应的视锥细胞。这些细胞对这三种颜色做出反应的激活比例决定了人们看到的颜色。

However, compared to the broad optical spectrum in nature, the human eye can only perceive wavelengths ranging from 400 to 700 nanometers, leading to the neglect of a significant amount of potential information. By extending perception to the near-infrared range, 700 to 2,500 nanometers, the technology may open new possibilities for pushing boundaries for human vision.

然而，与自然界广阔的光谱相比，人眼只能感知400至700纳米的波长，导致大量潜在信息被忽略。通过将感知范围扩展至700至2500纳米的近红外波段，该技术或将为突破人类视觉界限开辟新的可能性。

"Rare earth elements possess unique optical properties, allowing the conversion of different colors of light through near-infrared excitation. By discerning the fluorescence colors of nano-particles, individuals can identify near-infrared wavelengths invisible to the naked eye, realizing the recognition of near-infrared 'colors'," said Chen Zihan, a researcher on the team from Fudan University.

复旦大学团队的研究人员陈子晗表示：“稀土元素拥有独特的光学特性，能够通过近红外激发，将不同颜色的光进行转换。通过辨别纳米颗粒的荧光颜色，人们可以识别肉眼不可见的近红外波长，实现对近红外‘颜色’的识别。”

The team further modified the surface of the nano-particles and dispersed them in polymer solutions, ultimately creating highly transparent contact lenses.

团队进一步修饰纳米颗粒表面，并将其分散在聚合物溶液中，最终制成高透明度的隐形眼镜。

In their research, volunteers who wore the contact lenses were able to perceive near-infrared light through the fluorescence of red, green and blue visible wavelength bands, and distinguish various compositions of near-infrared light wavelengths and patterns. This demonstrated the effective visualization of near-infrared images using multi-color rare earth luminescent materials, said the scientists.

在他们的研究中，佩戴隐形眼镜的志愿者能够通过红、绿、蓝可见光波段的荧光感知近红外光，并区分近红外光波长和图案的各种成分。科学家们表示，这证明了利用多色稀土发光材料可以有效地实现近红外图像的可视化。

A paper about the research, a collaborative effort between domestic and international research institutions, was published in the journal Cell on Thursday.

该项由国内外多家科研机构合作完成的研究论文已于周四发表在《细胞》杂志上。

fluorescence

/ˌflʊəˈresəns/

n.荧光；荧光发射

spectrum

/ˈspektrəm/

n.光谱；范围；幅度

perceive

/pəˈsiːv/

v.感知，察觉；理解

excitation

/ˌɛksaɪˈteɪʃn/

n.激发；激励；激发态