The world just keeps getting further and further in to the advanced technical age we were promised (ok, not me, but my parents) when we (they) were kids. This time, it’s the futuristic idea of being able to see images or data on your glasses, or in this case, in your contact lenses.
The project at the University of Washington, and led by one electrical engineer Babak Parviz, has built a bionic lens that will essentially enable maps and videos to be beamed right in front of the viewers eyes. Built of microscopic circuits fixed to a flexible plastic, this technology is naturally being likened to that of the Terminator’s vision from the hit movies.
The prototype that has been built has LED’s embedded in it that flash up the information. With a built-in antenna for wireless transfer, this technology could very well allow for people to surf the internet without taking their eyes off the world around them; though what control interface they are predicting for this I’m not sure.
"We have demonstrated some of the key technologies required to make a sophisticated functional contact lens. We hope to hook up a wireless link… for updating images and reporting the state of the lens,” said Parviz in an interview.
This is a marked step up from the wearable displays that rely on glasses, and brings us that one step closer to the science-fiction movies.
Joshua Hill, a Geek’s-Geek from Melbourne, Australia, Josh is an aspiring author with dreams of publishing his epic fantasy, currently in the works, sometime in the next 5 years. A techie, nerd, sci-fi nut and bookworm.
