I've read that SCL (soft contact lens) industries are developing soft lenses for keratoconus. My guess is that they would have a potential advantage in comfort, especially in the initial month or two of wear. But, I can't imagine them having any vision advantages.
I'm an experienced 30 year contact lens wearer and a technically studied person. I've worn first generation soft lens, and the new silicone hydrogel Continuous wear lens (one month). And I've worn corneal gas permeable lenses, both first generation (silicon acrylate) and current generation (fluorosilicone acrylates with low silicon content), which are far better than the originals for myself.
As far as "high-tech" or "sci-fi" type lenses, there are "zoom" contact lenses under development, for instance with 2x magnification. They work in conjunction with a pair of glasses which magnify the image, and may be handy for those with very high myopia or low vision, since the stronger the diopter power the smaller the focused image is on the retina. Also, there are new improvements being made with toric lenses in the SCL market, which gas permeable lenses have had an advantage in. On the issue of eye health, gas permeable lenses are remain the safest, reducing the chance of infection to a third of that of soft contact lenses. This is probably because soft contact lenses absorb liquids and bacteria, while gas permeable lenses do not. So imagine a kitchen with a sink sponge that collects bacteria and never gets replaced. That's comparable to a soft contact lens that rarely gets replaced. Also imagine a dinner plate in the kitchen sink. It gets washed off very well, over and over and over, and remains clean. This is like a gas permeable lens.
Finally, gas permeable lens are likely to remain the top lenses of choice when SCL fail to correct the vision adequately. This is because they are perfectly shaped, and rest on the cornea (corneal lenses) and thereby the cornea is optically replaced by the perfect shape of those hard lenses, even molding it to the lens shape over time (orthokeratology is a field that corrects myopia by temporarily molding the cornea to correct the vision instead of surgery, and it's benefits, and side effects, are temporary) .
On the other hand, soft contact lenses conform to the shape of the cornea, and either add diopter power to it, subtract from it. Any irregularity or higher order aberration in the cornea will remain after the soft contact lens conforms to the irregularity. For myself, I currently use Rigid Gas Permeable lenses (RGP) because they correct my vision better, and even though I have myopia, I couldn't read well with soft lenses. After a couple of months of adaptation, I found them to been more comfortable than soft lenses (except during pollen season). I think this is mainly due to their cleanliness. They remain crystal clean every day, where as soft lens collect more and more deposits day by day until disposal. So for me, each day is like a fresh pair of lens. However, I never did try the daily disposable soft contact lenses, which may solve the comfort problem I had.
