Where Are Your Contact Lens Displays? 152
destinyland writes "'We already see a future in which the humble contact lens becomes a real platform, like the iPhone is today,' argues researcher Babak Parvis, 'with lots of developers contributing their ideas and inventions.' He provides an update on the contact lens with transparent circuitry that's being developed at the University of Washington. (Its components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs which form images in front of the eye such as charts and photographs). They've already developed a lens-with-LED prototype that's powered by 330 microwatts of wireless radio-frequency power, and believe the lenses could also be used as biosensors to deliver body chemistry readings (including blood sugar levels). But 'What we've done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology,' says Dr. Parviz."
Visible from the outside? (Score:2, Interesting)
If I displayed a fullscreen hi-res photo of someone's eye on such a lens, would it pass retina scan?
Focus? (Score:5, Interesting)
It strikes me that the real trick isn't putting a display on the lens of the eye, but getting a focussed image. I mean, you could write a crisp, clear letter on someone's eyeball right now, but they wouldn't be able to see it. It'd just be a smudge on their vision. That still leaves you open to using a flash of colour in different directions to attract the wearer's attention to hazards, or other blurry ways of presenting information, mind you. I think the real key will be putting MEMS-directed lasers in there which can draw on the retina, bypassing focussing entirely.
Re:No contacts, please (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm not sure it would be that obvious. Apparently Deanna Troi wore black contacts for all of TNG (as did other betazoids) and I can't say I noticed.
How do you look at specific things with them? (Score:5, Interesting)
How would someone "look around" on a screen with contacts? Wouldn't the center of the screen always be what you're looking at, drastically minimizing what you can read and properly make out?
Re:No contacts, please (Score:3, Interesting)
Aside from the inconvenience, I haven't seen the health issues addressed. Mainly, what happens to the human eye when it's not only insulated by a contact lens, but also heated by the 330 microwatts needed to power these things?
Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... (Score:3, Interesting)
I would like to agree with driver licensing. But cops only stop for "speed" 90% of the time, when speed limits are already artificially low in most places to the point that you get bored driving. I see people not using turn signals all the time, communicating their intentions to other drivers, yet they never get a ticket.
I hope with the flying car, it would be computer controlled only. I don't think the general populace is ready to handle flying without crashing into other people's homes on a constant basis. Besides, it's much easier for AI to navigate the air path than a road.
How do you focus? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't know that the technology is theoretically impossible, but I think articles like this usually gloss over this not at all minor technical difficulty. Transparent circuitry is much easier because of this same phenomenon. If you cover up 50% of the area of a contact lens with completely opaque circuitry, you won't see the circuits in your vision, you'll just see a reduced intensity as if you were wearing sunglasses, because the circuitry will be so out of focus it will appear uniform. If your circuitry is only covering 10% of the area, you probably won't even notice the difference.
Re:No contacts, please (Score:2, Interesting)
The reason for the surgery was that I was prescribed steroids for an eye infection, and the steroids caused a cataract. Having the nearsightedness and farsightedness cured was a side effect of the cataract surgery.
The old implants won't let you focus, you still need reading glasses with them. My insurance would have paid 100% of the cost of the old fashioned implants, I had to pay an extra $1k for the CrystaLens implants. Best money I ever spent. I wouldn't have been able to afford the implants without the cataract; insurance wouldn't have covered any of it.
Re:Focus? (Score:2, Interesting)
Where are the decent Head Mounted Displays? (Score:3, Interesting)
Field of view is really the most important thing for an immersive experience, not the 3D aspect. Imagine the impressive view you would get looking out from the top of a mountain. There is no useful 3D information in the scene since everything is too far away, but it certainly wouldn't feel fake despite the lack of 3D. If you look at the same mountain view through a tiny window though, suddenly you are now longer "there", and it just becomes a picture of a mountain view. That's the dire experience you get from today's narrow field of view. Even the super expensive HMDs that cost as much as a house do not provide a normal human field of view.
I think the problem is that there is no real drive to bring virtual reality to the consumer market. Companies are far too comfortable making games designed to be played on a low field of view window on the world that never moves. If one of the major console makers pushed the idea of VR, it might change things. I won't hold my breath though. I've been waiting 20 years for VR and there is just no will there to go with the idea despite all the technical advances we have made.
Re:No contacts, please (Score:3, Interesting)
In a similar vein, I take the opposite view of corrective lenses ; I actually wear glasses that are the inverse of those an optician would prescribe. I noticed that my distance vision gets worse when I read screens and paper for long hours, so reasoning that this was the source of the problem I bought a pair of cheap pharmacy +1.0 reading glasses to wear while I work. This moves the apparent focal point of my screens further away and results in less deterioration of my distance vision.
The optician wanted to give me glasses to correct my distance vision. This wouldn't have made my problem any better and would probably eventually help it get worse. Of course, an optician has no incentive to reduce your need for glasses.