Digital Contact Lenses Come into Focus

[laconicsax]

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/47945

The idea of having images and text streamed live across your contact lenses has been used in many a Hollywood film. Now an international team of researchers has developed the first working prototype for such a device – they have constructed and tested a prototype contact lens capable of streaming real-time information across the field of vision; potentially providing the wearer with information updates. The researchers claim that their device will have a variety of uses, such as a biosensor, augmented reality systems, gaming devices, navigation systems and even as an aid to the hearing impaired.

In a study published in the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, the researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, and Aalto University in Finland describe how they constructed a computerized single-pixel contact lens and then demonstrated its safety by testing it on live eyes that showed no adverse side effects.

...

The device could overlay computer-generated visual information onto the "real world", making it easy to access information instantly from platforms such as mobile phones. It could also be linked to a biosensor in the user's body to generate updates, alerting the wearer to any changes in his or her glucose or lactate levels.

Close-range focus

One of the major challenges faced by the team while making the lens system more biocompatible was overcoming the fact that the human eye cannot resolve objects on a contact lens as its minimum focal distance is several centimetres away at least, making any information on the lens itself look blurry and out of focus. To combat this, the researchers incorporated a set of micro-Fresnel lenses – Fresnel lenses are generally thinner and flatter than an average lens and have short focal lengths – into the lens, allowing it to focus the projected image onto the retina.

Isn't living in the future awesome?

[MADem]

1. Geeeeez......better than an EYEPHONE!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaHUpWuqNHY

[tridim]

2. Bypassing the eye completely will work better.

Everything else is a hack.

[DCKit]

3. I, for one, can't wait for the day when I can plug the TV cable directly into my skull. nt

[Javaman]

15. You can't? nt

[aquart]

4. Do you walk into buses?

[struggle4progress]

5. Now I'll be able to watch youtube while driving!

:bounce:

[laconicsax]

6. You mean drive while watching YouTube, right?

[struggle4progress]

10. Anything so I don't have to watch all the oblivious idiots lurching and swerving down the road!

[Javaman]

14. "sorry officer, I swear I didn't see that car in front of me, when I slammed into it...

I was watch cute videos of kitty's playing with a light spot on youtube".

[shraby]

7. Another place for them to put advertisements

[htuttle]

8. I was just thinking that

[Javaman]

13. Hell, I'm waiting for the first hacking.

"today it was reported that several thousand people suddenly went blind when their video contacts went off line".

[Nay]

9. Gee, can I have a contact lens that will allow me to see far away and

close up with the same pair? You know, contact lenses that millions of people actually NEED??

[Javaman]

12. Come on, you mean something practical?

shame on you.

[Javaman]

11. So will this mean that everyone wearing these will suddenly have the

"glazed over fundie eyes"?

That look of, "I'm sort of paying attention, but my mind is actually else where and what you say really doesn't matter because I haven't really been listening".

[DCKit]

16. Now they'll be able to see Jesus (or God) instead of just hearing them. nt

[Odin2005]

17. The future is HERE!!!