Enhancing contact lenses with electronics seems to be a topic that has gained research interest. Smart contact lenses for health and head-up displays article the litany of research projects underway in the field of contact lens enhancement. Sensimed has already contact lens with surface-mounted strain gauge to assess glaucoma risk. Those medical measuring lenses have lacked display.
I wrote to years ago at Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens posting that researches are developing a new generation of contact lenses built with very small circuits and LEDs.
The news today tells that the idea of those contact lenses has progresses. Electronic contact lens displays pixels on the eyes tells that the first contact lenses containing electronic displays into the eyes of rabbits as a first step on the way to proving they are safe for humans. US and Finnish team says that they have demonstrated the operation of a contact lens display powered by a remote radio frequency transmitter in free space and on a live rabbit.
The test lens was powered remotely using gigahertz-range radio-frequency energy. The power transmitter was placed ten centimetres from the rabbit’s eye and RF energy was picked up on the lens with 5-millimetre-long antenna printed on the lens. The test lens had only one pixel.
Now we have to wait displays with good resolution become available some day. Maybe some day they can replace some larger displays…
Amazing Blog. I’m going to remember to visit routinely.
[...] EYEWARE FASHIONEYEWARE FASHIONDisplay in contact lens [...]
The previous comment points to page that tells about Bates method to improve vision.
The Bates method is an alternative therapy aimed at improving eyesight.
Despite continued anecdotal reports of successful results, including well-publicized support by Aldous Huxley,[2] Bates’ techniques have not been shown objectively to improve eyesight,[3] and his main physiological proposition – that the eyeball changes shape to maintain focus – has consistently been contradicted by observation.[4] In 1952, optometry professor Elwin Marg wrote of Bates, “Most of his claims and almost all of his theories have been considered false by practically all visual scientists.”[
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bates_method
Biotechnology: Smart contact lenses exploit the unusual characteristics of the eye to diagnose disease, deliver drugs and more besides
http://www.innovationtoronto.com/2011/06/biotechnology-smart-contact-lenses/
Somewhat related technology, but not this time (yet) using contact lenses:
Google’s HUD glasses have been sighted
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57372312-93/googles-hud-glasses-have-been-sighted/
In December, rumors spread that Google was finishing up a prototype on high-tech glasses known as wearable head-up displays (HUD) that could tap into Google’s cloud-based location services and detail users’ surroundings. The information would then appear as an augmented reality computer display.
According to 9to5Google, these glasses can do all that and more. The glasses will reportedly have an extremely small front-facing camera with a flash to gather information and take photos, a navigation system that is used by head-tilting to scroll and click, I/O for voice input and output, and CPU/RAM/storage hardware nearly equivalent to a generation-old Android smartphone.
HUD Google Glasses are real and they are coming soon
http://9to5google.com/2012/02/06/hud-google-glasses-are-real-and-they-are-coming-soon/
Alleged details about Google HUD eyeglasses surface, public beta said to be in consideration
http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/6/2775959/google-hud-eyeglasses-alleged-details-public-beta-consideration
Epson’s Moverio BT-100 Android-powered display glasses available in the USA
http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/28/2908197/epson-moverio-bt-100-usa-release-pricing-availability
Epson launched its BT-100 media viewer glasses in Japan back in November, but now the Android-powered translucent visor is now available in the USA. The headset uses micro projectors to create a 960 x 540 qHD display in front of the wearer’s eyes, which appears as an 80-inch image 5 meters away, while still allowing them to see the world around them. The dual projectors mean that it’s able to display 3D content, too.
The headset connects to a controller with a touchpad and the standard Android buttons, along with Wi-Fi connectivity that allows you to browse the web, view media, or even (as Thomas Sohmers demonstrated earlier month) control Parrot’s AR.Drone quadrocopter.
Google’s Project Glass augmented reality glasses begin testing
http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/4/2925237/googles-project-glass-augmented-reality-glasses-begin-testing
A long-rumored Google project, the Project Glass augmented reality glasses were unveiled today by Google on a new Google+ page. The project is specifically from Google X, the company’s “secret lab” focused on long-term projects. These early videos and images show an augmented reality concept that’s deeply integrated with all of Google’s services, with voice commands, video chat, location check-ins, maps (outside and in-store), and much more.
6 Glasses With Integrated Displays That You Can Buy Today
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/04/6-glasses-with-integrated-displays-that-you-can-buy-today/
While Google’s augmented-reality glasses are receiving immense attention — and scrutiny — they’re certainly not the first pieces of eyewear to include an integrated display.
Google reveals Project Glass: Is this your augmented reality?
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/google-project-glass/
Google is providing the first public glimpse of the augmented-reality glasses being developed by its Google X research group under the name “Project Glass.”
Why unveil them now? The New York Times and Reuters say the Project Glass team will be testing prototypes in public. The New York Times reported previously that the glasses would go on sale this year, but the Google team doesn’t mention that possibility.
What do you think? Would you use these glasses in public, and how much would you pay for them?
Epson’s 3D Android Glasses
Unique eyewear lets users browse the web, watch movies, and listen to music, from anywhere
http://www2.electronicproducts.com/Epson_s_3D_Android_Glasses-article-fajb_moverio_BT100_apr2012-docx-html.aspx
Okay, this may not be the best looking pair of glasses on the market right now, but what they lack for in style, they make up for in jaw-dropping awesomeness.
This is the Epson Moverio BT-100 headset and they’re the world’s first Android-based wearable display. You can browse the web with these glasses, watch movies, listen to music, and more.
They’re not cheap — priced at $699.99
To start things off, the BT-100 includes Wi-Fi connectivity, so users can get online if and when service is available. The whole system runs on the Android 2.2 (FroYo) platform and includes Adobe Flash player for easy web browsing and better app speeds.
Users can toggle between 2D and 3D on a QHD (one-quarter of a fully HD-display) screen. Using pioneering micro-projection technology and advanced imaging techniques, the perceived image that the glasses display is incredibly large: it’s actually equivalent to watching an 80-inch display from a little over 16 feet away.
The sides of the glasses are semi-transparent, so users can enjoy what they’re watching, but still see what’s going on in the real world if need-be.
Also, 3D images can be included into the user’s surrounding environment on a “floating” see-through display.
Apple and Facebook Should Be Terrified Of Google-Tinted Glasses
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/04/apple-facebook-project-glass/
Google’s augmented reality eyewear is coming to disrupt your face and your business model. If you don’t even have to pull your phone out to take a photo, get directions, or message with friends, why would you need to buy the latest iPhone or spend so much time on Facebook?
It could be a year before Google eyewear reaches stores, but that’s why these and other tech companies need to strategize now. If they wait to see if the device is a hit, the world could be seeing through Google-tinted glasses by the time they adapt. Apple and Facebook’s bet might be to team up…
Cramming all the functionality into a sleek set of glasses is going to take time and effort, but the Google(x) skunklabs is on it. There’s a dozen ways the product could flop, most obviously if the glasses are awkward and unstylish, but also if they’re too heavy, expensive, fragile, or the world is just not quite ready. Let’s forget those for a second. Say Google figures it out and the retail version of Project Glass (which may end up being called Google Eye) becomes wildly popular. How will this disrupt Apple and Facebook, and what should they do to defend themselves?
Google Gets Transparent With Glass, Its Augmented Reality Project
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/epicenter-google-glass-ar/
Larry Page and Sergey Brin have long had the dream of a hands-free, mobile Google, where search was a seamless process as you moved around the world. As the years progressed the vision did, too, expanding beyond search to persistent connections with the people in your lives.
Google is revealing that it is taking concrete steps towards that vision with ProjectGlass, an augmented reality system that will give users the full range of activities performed with a smart phone — without the smart phone. Instead, you wear some sort of geeky prosthetic
The concept video for the Glass project concentrates on the cool things you may do with it one day — create instant contact with friends, monitor feeds about weather and other info, get information about a subway station out of service, receive turn by turn directions on the way to a destination, snap a picture by command, even find your way to a certain tome in the labyrinthine Strand bookstore. Everything works perfectly because, well, it’s a concept video and not a depiction of something that’s actually perfected.
Light-powered bionic eye invented to help restore sight
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18061174
A retinal implant – or bionic eye – which is powered by light has been invented by scientists at Stanford University in California.
Implants currently used in patients need to be powered by a battery.
The new device, described in the journal Nature Photonics, uses a special pair of glasses to beam near infrared light into the eye.
Retinal implants stimulate the nerves in the back of the eye, which has helped some patients to see.
Early results of a trial in the UK mean two men have gone from being totally blind to being able to perceive light and even some shapes.
A pair of glasses fitted with a video camera records what is happening before a patient’s eyes and fires beams of near infrared light on to the retinal chip.
The creates an electrical signal which is passed on to nerves.
Natural light is 1,000 times too weak to power the implant.
The researchers said: “Because the photovoltaic implant is thin and wireless, the surgical procedure is much simpler than in other retinal prosthetic approaches.
Tiny Solar-Panel-Like Cells Help Restore Sight to the Blind
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/tiny_solar_panel_like_cells_help_restore_sight_to_the_blind
ScienceDaily (May 13, 2012) — Using tiny solar-panel-like cells surgically placed underneath the retina, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have devised a system that may someday restore sight to people who have lost vision because of certain types of degenerative eye diseases.