Alphabet’s autofocusing contact lens won’t be tested in 2016

Bad news if you were hoping that Google's (now Alphabet's) smart contact lenses would be available relatively soon: they're running into some hurdles. Novartis, which is partnering with Alphabet's Verily Life Sciences on an autofocusing lens that add...

Scientists build soft, transparent contact lens displays with nanomaterials

Scientists build soft, transparent contact lens displays with nanomaterials

Of the contact lens display prototypes that we've seen so far, few if any are focused on comfort -- a slight problem when they're meant to sit on our eyeballs. A collaboration between Samsung and multiple universities may solve this with display tech that's meant to be cozy from the start. By putting silver nanowires between graphene layers, researchers have created transparent conductors that can drive LEDs while remaining flexible enough to sit on a contact lens. Current test lenses only have one pixel, but they're so soft that rabbits can wear them for five hours without strain. Scientists also see the seemingly inevitable, Glass-like wearable display as just one development path -- they're working on biosensors and active vision correction. While there's still a long way to go before we reach a cyberpunk future of near-invisible displays, we may finally have some of the groundwork in place.

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Via: MIT Technology Review

Source: ACS Publications

DARPA realizes it needs contact lenses, opts for those nice AR tinted ones (video)

DARPA realizes it needs contact lenses, opts for those nice AR tinted ones (video)DARPA saw the battlefield potential in AR glasses ages ago, when even Sergey Brin was happy to wear regular Ray-Bans. It's now stepped up its investment, giving more cash to one of its research contractors -- a company called Innovega -- to produce prototype contact lenses that could make military wearable HUDs smaller and less conspicuous. Innovega's iOptik lenses don't actually include a display, but rather allow the human eye to focus on an image from a separate accessory that sits right up close to the eyeball. The lenses have different zones that give the wearer multiple areas of focus, so they can see the overlaid augmented reality HUD -- such as a feed from an overhead drone -- but also warlike events going on in the immediate environment. Judging from the video after the break, however, calling them plain 'bifocals' might be taboo.

Continue reading DARPA realizes it needs contact lenses, opts for those nice AR tinted ones (video)

DARPA realizes it needs contact lenses, opts for those nice AR tinted ones (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Apr 2012 05:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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