Gold could be used to help restore vision and improve the performance of liquid crystal display (LCD) screens thanks to its ability to capture light, the World Gold Council said on Wednesday.

The industry-backed body is funding a third of the cost of a technology project developed by U.S.-based Solaris Nanosciences, although the amount remains confidential.

The science behind Solaris’s product was based on a method dating back to the Romans, who dissolved small particles of gold and silver into glass to create different colours, said Richard Holliday, WGC’s industrial sector manager.

“When you make gold into nano-sized particles it has these very unusual optical effects…There are a lot of high-tech things you can do with gold when you put it into this form,” Holliday said.

“The gold enhances the way that things capture light.”

Solaris said in a statement that when gold was incorporated into LCDs via nano-sized rod structures, it was expected to improve the viewing angle of the display.

“This effort will also directly benefit the development of our gold-based materials for restoring visual acuity in patients suffering from retinal diseases such as Age-related macular degeneration (AMD),” said Nabil Lawandy, CEO of Solaris.

AMD, which affects some 30 million people worldwide, is a devastating disease that affects the part of the retina responsible for sharp central vision.

On its website, Solaris said current therapies were aimed at stopping progression of the disease rather than restoring vision.

Solaris is developing biologically active gold-based nanostructures that would bind to remaining healthy photoreceptors in the eye to help them capture light and restore visual acuity.

Holliday said the project was still in its research stage.

The current industrial demand for gold is around 350 to 400 tonnes a year - just ten percent of global gold demand and very low compared to other precious metals like platinum, palladium and silver.