Researchers in Finland and the US have developed and tested a prototype contact lens that could provide the wearer with a real time hands-free display.
The researchers from the University of Washington and Aalto University, Finland, have constructed a computerised contact lens and demonstrated its safety by testing it on live eyes. At the moment, the contact lens device contains only a single pixel but the researchers see this as a “proof-of-concept” for producing lenses with multiple pixels which, in their hundreds, could be used to display short emails and text messages right into the eye.
The contact lens consists of an antenna to harvest power sent out by an external source, as well as an integrated circuit to store the energy and transfer it to a transparent sapphire chip containing a single blue LED.
Scientists say that these lenses could be used by drivers, allowing them to see their journey and moving speed projected on the car’s windshield. Also, contact lenses could be used for virtual games, and connecting them to the biosensors in the patient’s body may allow them to display medical data such as blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
