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Where Are Your Contact Lens Displays?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the we'll-use-them-as-huds-in-our-flying-cars dept.

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."

22 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Funny

    Where Are Your Contact Lens Displays?

    Oh, that's right, I left them out in the garage in my flying car. You see, I was running Duke Nukem Forever in Hurd but the battery ran out of power so I set them aside to bring in and recharge at my tabletop cold fusion station. It's okay though, I'll have forever to enjoy them now that Ray Kurzweil's Singularity has happened.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Funny

      What an insightful Slashdot comment, attached to this accurate summary of an original, well-written online tech story.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    2. Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by rolfwind · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Oh, that's right, I left them out in the garage in my flying car. You see, I was running Duke Nukem Forever in Hurd but the battery ran out of power so I set them aside to bring in and recharge at my tabletop cold fusion station. It's okay though, I'll have forever to enjoy them now that Ray Kurzweil's Singularity has happened.

      If the population grows, the flying car has to happen one day, because the roads just get too congested otherwise. I see pictures of India's streets today and shudder when even 25% can and do own cars. China is already experiencing those problems. It's either that, or a real mass transit system like the Germans have, coupled with a revolutionary short distance personal transportation device, something that the Segway was rumored to be, but just wasn't. A bike would do, though a bit slow, a scooter like the original honda cub isn't bad either, but neither fold up enough to take on most busses, trains. It would also take an attitude adjustment on people's parts. The flying car just isn't reality because neither aerodynamic nor lift principles would be satisfactory for the human limitation involved, and anti-gravity would work, if such a thing existed. I would also suggest computer controlled road cars, but I'm not sure if the liability is worth it, if it's only suitable for highways, because, really, people are overall stupid drivers and technology (phones) is only making it worse so far.

      DNF is just a game and technically feasible, they just were directionless and unhappy with everything they made. Hurd was superceded by Linux, so it's like complaining that an effective gas lamp was never invented when the lightbulb is already here.

      Cold Fusion may be a pipe dream... but I hope they accompany these computer lenses with eyeglass counterparts. I don't like contacts, personally. I can see it happen, but I'd figure the computer power to get anything done would have to be miniaturized so much it'll be at least another 20 years... or that they have a terminal/server configuration where the lens/eyeglass acts as only a display wirelessly connected to a real computer elsewhere, be it on the person himself somewhere or on the internet.

    3. Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Ooo, ooo, I get it! We're bolding things that could never happen!

    4. Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by Sockatume · · Score: 4, Funny

      ;_;

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    5. Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by brian0918 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Your statements are making me sick to my stomach... I think I'll go to the bathroom and use the three seashells.

    6. Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by LordAndrewSama · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If the population grows, the flying car has to happen one day

      is that to facilitate transportation, or to solve the population problem? Because flat roads are beyond the abilities of most of the ass-nuggets behind the wheel already.

    7. Re:I Seem to Have Misplaced Them ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      ...not to mention the year of the Linux desktop.

  2. No contacts, please by mcgrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I got rid of my contacts back in 2006 (I'm a cyborg). For nearsightedness they're far better than glasses because you need to see all day long, but for a display they're not the right platform. Put those transparent circutis in a pair of glasses; I can keep them in my pocket for when they're needed.

    You don't see anyone wearing contact sunglasses, now do you? Not even the ones that darken in sunlight and lighten indoors. Contact lens computer displays is a dumb idea.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
    1. Re:No contacts, please by Scutter · · Score: 4, Funny

      You don't see anyone wearing contact sunglasses, now do you? Not even the ones that darken in sunlight and lighten indoors.

      No, it's because seeing people with solid black eyes would creep people right the hell out. Didn't you see Event Horizon?

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
    2. Re:No contacts, please by thesandtiger · · Score: 4, Informative

      Professional athletes wear sun-sensitive contacts, actually. They're about the only people who have a big enough need for that kind of thing and can afford them - they're rather expensive.

      --
      Since I can't tell them apart, I treat all ACs as the same person.
    3. Re:No contacts, please by stjobe · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

      "Hey! Up here!"

      Small wonder you missed it...

      --
      "Total destruction the only solution" - Bob Marley
  3. Re:What could possibly go wrong? by mschirmer · · Score: 3, Funny

    Could you imagine the possibilities? *wink wink* .. You've bored at work, so you close your eyes and voila, a peep show all to yourself! No need to leave the office!

    Wait... I'll be back. I have to go pull my mind out of the gutter.

  4. Focus? by Sockatume · · Score: 4, 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.

    --
    No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    1. Re:Focus? by Last_Available_Usern · · Score: 4, Funny

      Let me just make sure I read this right...you want to shoot lasers directly onto my retina?

  5. Where Are Your Contact Lens Displays? by Saija · · Score: 4, Informative

    maybe here:
    Augmented Reality In a Contact Lens
    Bionic Contact Lens May Lead to Overlay Displays
    Contact Lenses for Computer Professionals?
    Bionic Contact Lens May Lead to Overlay Displays
    Smart Contact Lenses
    Permormance-Enhancing Contact Lenses

    And for the recursive obssesed folks, there's:
    Where Are Your Contact Lens Displays?

    --
    Slashdot ya no es que lo era! ;)
  6. Re:What could possibly go wrong? by snspdaarf · · Score: 3, Funny

    "No, Boss, I wasn't sleeping, I was playing pocket pool with Jenna Jameson."

    --
    Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
  7. Re:Visible from the outside? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Do people use retina scans anymore? I thought that they had been replace with iris scans, which are easier to do and can also use rapidly varying light patterns to test pupil dilation, which is much harder to fake than a static pattern.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  8. The Blue by JustOK · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Blue Cataract of Death.

    --
    rewriting history since 2109
  9. Re:Half an hour to insert by TheRaven64 · · Score: 3, Informative

    How long did you try for? I started wearing contacts for flying and shooting (shooting with glasses gave me four different images to try to aim at because of the angle, and flying was problematic because they didn't fit well under the headphones). I was only putting them in once a week, and it took about ten to fifteen minutes. Once I started wearing them every day, I got much quicker. It also helped when my optician told me that any suggestions involving mirrors were nonsense. Don't look at your eye in a mirror when putting the lenses in, look straight at the lens and move your finger closer to your eye until they're in.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  10. This it great by AP31R0N · · Score: 4, Funny

    These will definitely help me find Sarah Connor.

    --
    Utilizing the synergization of benchmark e-solutions to pre-workaround action items!
  11. How do you look at specific things with them? by foodnugget · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't have contacts, but from what i understand, they center on your cornea and move with your eye, right?

    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?