Published on : 10 January 20202 min reading time
Augmented Reality Contact Lenses
It seems that augmented reality could, in the future, be used in contact lenses.
We’ve all seen characters in Torchwood slipping on a pair of contact lenses, secretly containing a camera and with the ability for the wearer to see words being typed on a computer far away, allowing communication, but could this now be set to be reality?
Well, not quite. But the researchers at the University of Washington and Aalto University in Finland have still been working on something pretty interesting and have created a type of contact lens that can contain electronic displays.
The lens itself contains an antenna which will pick up power from external sources, relaying the information to the lens.
A member of the team who created these has spoke out, saying, “We have demonstrated the operation of a contact lens display powered by a remote radio frequency transmitter in free space and on a live rabbit. This verifies that antennas, radio chips, control circuitry, and micrometre-scale light sources can be integrated into a contact lens and operated on live eyes.”
These are going to take a very long time to actually be anywhere near ready for use, but could this see a new future in augmented reality and maybe one day, a new way of gaming? Quite possibly!
A researcher went on to say, “In the future, contact lens systems may receive data from external platforms (e.g. mobile phones) and provide real-time notifications of important events. With more colours and increased resolution, contact lenses may display text, be used with gaming devices, or offer cues from navigation systems.”