back to article Researchers share video contact lens vision

Boffins in America have finally put aside childish things and set themselves to the task of genuinely benefiting humanity, according to reports. The US brainboxes believe they are well on the way to designing contact lenses with video screens in them. The technology was showcased at a microsystems engineering conference …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Tony Barnes

    Visual clues

    Whilst I applaud the technology starter for 10, his idea of having other bits floating around the eye are a matter for concern. Humans evolved whites as a language tool, an eye-full of transistors would be a little odd...

    There's also issues of dry eyes to be taken into consideration if this lens route is taken over other external devices/plugged into brain

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Also...

    How would you know which bit the top edge of the lens is? Contact lenses are fiddly enough without having to make certain the damn things are the right way up, AND exactly level...

    Bah: I want a HUD on my eyes but I'm not buggering about with this solution.

    D- Must try harder

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Well

    Can I plug a vga lead into it, or will it be DVI only? I see connector space as limited.

    Wait, they're thinking of using RF for power, so presumably the signal can go on that as well? I think it needs to be encrypted - no point using these if everyone else that has them can see the same Paris Hilton images that you're looking at!

    Now, where can they think of hiding the DVD player? and I think the obvious next step is implantable earphones - who's for watching the latest DVD serruptitiously in those oh so important meetings?

  4. Paul M

    @Also...

    Toric contact lenses and others that cope with astigmatism already need to lie in the correct orientation to work. Years ago I had some with a little cutout at the bottom which fitted against your lower eyelid.

    And yes, they are even fiddlier than normal lenses.

  5. OrsonX
    Thumb Down

    Cool!

    I think such cyber-lenses are clearly going to be possible in the very near future, and from a sci-fi point of view this is really cool!

    But, what I want to know relates to focusing of the lense generated image? For example, my glasses are covered in dust, but I am mostly unawre of this as I am focusing on images further away than the lenses in my glasses. To actually see the dust requires focusing at VERY close range, and unless you are shortsighted then this, for most people, is impossible! So any generated image might be completely usless, or appear as a vague glow and not like a plane's HUD - as you might hope for!

    Please tell me I'm wrong, as I'd love a working pair of cyber-lenses!

  6. Dave Oldham
    Coat

    My Next Exam...

    This may prove interesting for those like me who supervise and proctor exams for (ISC)2.

    You are not allowed to take any materials in to stop cheating...

    Apart from checking their credetials on such as their passport and admission letter I will also have to gaze deeply into their eyes.

    Hmmm... Nice.

    I'll get my coat.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @Anonymous above - right way up

    Toric contact lenses already have (and have largely solved) this problem. Basically there's a tiny mark on the lens (outside the part that covers your pupil) to indicate the right way up, and the bottom edge is weighted so that they'll naturally tend to rotate round to this direction. Not nearly as hard as you might think. :)

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @orsonX

    Your wrong! ;-)

    You do infact see the dust, its your mind that compensates to hide it from you. Just like those puzz3D things - you had to force your eyes NOT to focus on the paper in order to see the image.

    They will work alright - but i fear that i will have to kill myself (and take out a health portion of the rest of you) before i will see BBCeye player, the eyePhone, wikieyepedia, the list goes on.

    (RFP : reason for Paris : Can't wait for her to be a twinkle in my eye. )

  9. Pete

    And how often do you lose contact lenses

    could be pricey

    and "normal" contact lenses have to be thrown away after a while as they get so dirty they become a health hazard.

    Cool idea though

  10. dervheid
    Thumb Up

    Woo Hoo!

    As long as they make them so you appear to be paying attention during those all day compulsory corporate bullsh** sessions, when in fact you're actually watching something entertaining, place my order NOW!

  11. Andy Gates
    Thumb Up

    Genius

    The Google contact lens for that instant genius-on-the-go. Enhanced-reality that makes sat-nav look pasty and amateurish? A second-life interface for the most immersive furry teledildonics ever.

    Sign me up for a pair. Working in IT's given me scratchy dry eyes anyway, I may as well get some private smut for my trouble.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Why contact lenses?

    Wouldnt it be easier to develop this on glasses first? Much easier mechanically, and easier to take off if you dont want the stuff cluttering up your vision. Or don't rabbits like wearing glasses?

  13. Kevin Johnston

    A Small step

    I seem to recall a micro-monitor which could be worn just in front of the eye but which allowed to to see a full screen of image. Couldn't fiund the original which was a single screen (1" ish) mounted on a headband. There was someone who used to wander round with a camera mounted on the other side continually uploading his life to his website.

    Did find these though...http://www.pinktentacle.com/2007/10/teleglass-t4-n-wearable-monitor/

  14. Martin Richards

    Science imitating Fiction?

    Has no-one read Artemis Fowle? I wonder what other ideas they'll rip off from these books next?

  15. brym

    @ Martin

    Surely it doesn't matter where the idea came from - except for giving credit. It has the potential to benefit all sorts of areas. Most immediately, our armed forces and emergency services.

  16. OrsonX
    Unhappy

    @AnonymousCoward

    Sorry, but you're wrong! The reason you can't see the dust is just that it's out of focus. The proof: stand behind a chain-link fence and take a picture of a distant object with a camera... can you see the fence in your picture? Answer, no (the camera has no brain and therefore it's dissappreance has nothing to do, in this instance, with visual filtering).

    I think I am right in saying that it will be utterly impossible to read anything produced on the contact lens display, this is EASY to prove. Just see how close you can bring a text-book to your face before you can't read anything. I'd wager that, unless you are shortsighted, this will be about a hands-width away. Now imagine trying to focus on text at the front of your eye-ball displayed on the surface of the cyber-lens. Sorry, no way!!

    [I'm sad because I am right]

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Right way up

    "How would you know which bit the top edge of the lens is? Contact lenses are fiddly enough without having to make certain the damn things are the right way up, AND exactly level.."

    Those of us who suffer from astigmatism are already used to putting in our lenses "right way up".

    It really isn't a problem.

  18. Martin Huizing
    Paris Hilton

    @OrsonX

    Yo dude, lighten up. Anon was right and you are saying the same thing.

    Myself? I love looking up to a blue sky and watch small blobs of things floating in the milky fluid that resided in my eyeballs since (and before) I was born.

    I can focus a bit better without my glasses though (-8)

    Paris Hilton cause I once saw her floating by as well!

  19. TeeCee Gold badge

    Ups and downs.

    The focussing issue isn't. Look at the eye-trek for an good example here. This one mounts two, small LED displays at glasses-lens distance from your eyes, yet it gives the impression of a 50" monitor on the other side of the room and that's what you are focussing on. Moving the point of presentation onto the eyeball, doesn't mean that you have to focus there, it's all about where the point of focus of the *perceived* image is.

    I'd be more worried about having unwanted annoying adverts popping up on my corneas all day meself.

This topic is closed for new posts.