Method for making opthalmic devices

1. A method for producing a contact lens for a specific patient, comprising the steps of:

receiving a prescription comprising a set of characteristic data of an eye of said specific patient;

designing a 3-D mathematical model of the contact lens based on the prescription;

mathematically slicing the 3-D mathematical model into a number of thin and vertically superimposed layers, each layer having a defined thickness profile and a geometry corresponding to a cross-section of the 3-D mathematical model at a level of that layer; and

converting a thickness profile and the geometry of each of a number of the thin and vertically superimposed layers into control signals that control a stereolithography machine to create, layer by superimposed layer, the contact lens in a bath of a crosslinkable or polymerizable contact lens forming material, wherein said contact lens forming material comprises one or more UV absorbing agents in an amount sufficient to reduce depth of penetration of a lens-forming material to a desired value.

2. A method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises producing a ophthalmic lens by the stereolithography machine.

3. A system for producing an ophthalmic lens for a specific patient, comprising:

a computer system;

a means in communication with said computer system for prompting said specific patient or his eye care-practitioner, who takes care of the specific patient, to enter a prescription of an eye of the patient;

a means for designing a 3-D mathematical model of an ophthalmic lens based on the prescription; a means for mathematically slicing the 3-D mathematical model into a number of thin and vertically superimposed layers, each layer having a defined thickness profile and a geometry corresponding to a cross-section of the 3-D mathematical model at a level of that layer;

a means for converting the defined thickness profile and the geometry of each of a number of the thin and vertically superimposed layers into control signals that control a stereolithography machine to create, layer by superimposed layer, the ophthalmic lens in a bath of a crosslinkable or polymerizable device-forming material,

wherein said system further comprises a wavefront sensor which determines the wavefront aberrations of an eye of the patient.

4. The system of claim 3 , wherein said means in communication with said computer system is a modem linked to a computer through Internet.

5. The system of claim 3 , wherein said system further comprises a corneal topographer or videokeratoscope which determines corneal topographic data of the eye.

6. A system of claim 3 , wherein said system further comprises a stereolithography machine.

7. A computer program product for use in a computer system to produce an ophthalmic lens by means of stereolithography, comprising:

a recording medium;

means, recorded on the recording medium, for designing a 3-D mathematical model of the ophthalmic lens based on a prescription based on the prescription of an eye of a patient;

means, recorded on the recording medium, for mathematically slicing the 3-D mathematical model into a number of thin and vertically superimposed layers, each layer having a defined thickness profile and a geometry corresponding to a cross-section of the 3-D mathematical model at a level of that layer; and

means, recorded on the recording medium, for converting the defined thickness profile and the geometry of each of a number of the thin and vertically superimposed layers into control signals that control a stereolithography machine to create, layer by superimposed layer, the ophthalmic lens in a bath of a crosslinkable or polymerizable device-forming material.