Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens
spectrum.ieee.org
spectrum.ieee.org
Reading this in a non-fiction context is so exciting.
Always on augmented reality.
Anyone see Blade Runner? There was a chinese guy who is the eyeball making specialist.
Recently I saw a story that scientists are growing livers for transplant. I'd like an eyeball upgrade. Maybe one that doesn't fatigue as easily as my default parts.
Maybe Google Augment or gAugment
3-D, high-resolution, virtual-reality-mapped information, games, communications.
This is going to be a very cool technology to check back with in five or ten years.
Let me expand on that a little bit, though, so I'm not misunderstood: use the cam for image recognition, sure. But instead of piping the cam image to the projector, simply use it to map the augmented reality elements (visual tags like addresses, direction-path, and so forth) directly to the projector so they line up correctly with what you actually see through the lens. Add a digital zoom pip for when you want some far-off detail up close, I suppose...
At first I thought they were holding out for a large contract from the DoD or something, but after this long I just assume there's something critically wrong with them (one of the above), or that the managers are idiots who can fail to profit from having warehouses of gold. :)
For me, getting contact lenses was one of the best things I ever did, and liked them as soon as I tried them on. I hadn't seen my own reflection without glasses from a distance in over 10 years. I'd forgotten what it was like to have decent peripheral vision. They gave me a +2 boost to confidence, purely for vanity reasons.
They were annoying to get in at first, though that was the only real issue. Once you get the trick of it (for me, getting over squeamishness about touching my eyes), it's generally between 5 and 30 seconds.
I know glasses are more convenient (to put on - you don't have to constantly clean contacts throughout the day, and they're less prone to getting lost) - and I like having both. Glasses are to lenses as slippers are to shoes - something I wear when I first wake up for convenience.
I'd been put off getting contacts for years, since I hated things being near my eyes, however I now recommend them to all my bespectacled friends. Also, I find it easier to imagine tech like this article as contacts rather than glasses - contacts are much more like an extension of your body.
For me, glasses are better for reading paper and the screen. Contacts are better for everything else. Being able to play various sports without having to choose between worrying about breaking my glasses or being seriously visually impaired is freeing. Even things like running and lifting are so much easier because I don't need to constantly adjust my glasses. And I didn't realize how nice it feels to not have something constantly on my face until I started wearing contacts.
There are ups and downs to both glasses and contacts, which is why I wear both during the week and day. But implying that people wear contacts because they feel a sense of accomplishment by putting them in is foolish.
The value in the frames, to me, is how light they are.
I think in addition to the technical challenge of actually getting something like this working in a contact lens, the issue of physically being able to make use of such a device needs to be addressed.
To those suggesting a pair of glasses be used instead, I think this is a more practical suggestion for both reasons (the biological and technical). If I try really hard I'm barely able to focus on something as close as my glasses.
Another issue is that contact lenses need to breath. They admit in the article that gas permeability is affected as features are added to the lens, so I'd think glasses would be a safer option.