*We're deep in vapor-hardware here, but it's nice to see this weird project getting a sudden toehold in the public eye.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/bionics/augmented-reality-in-a-contact-lens/1
(...)
"Conventional contact lenses are polymers formed in specific shapes to correct faulty vision. To turn such a lens into a functional system, we integrate control circuits, communication circuits, and miniature antennas into the lens using custom-built optoelectronic components. Those components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs, which will form images in front of the eye, such as words, charts, and photographs. Much of the hardware is semitransparent so that wearers can navigate their surroundings without crashing into them or becoming disoriented. In all likelihood, a separate, portable device will relay displayable information to the lens’s control circuit, which will operate the optoelectronics in the lens.
"These lenses don’t need to be very complex to be useful. Even a lens with a single pixel could aid people with impaired hearing or be incorporated as an indicator into computer games. (((Yeah. If I were teaching augmented-reality design, I'd be asking my class to think hard about what they could augment with a single pixel.)))
"With more colors and resolution, the repertoire could be expanded to include displaying text, translating speech into captions in real time, or offering visual cues from a navigation system. (((A "soft Layar on your eyeball.")))
"With basic image processing and Internet access, a contact-lens display could unlock whole new worlds of visual information, unfettered by the constraints of a physical display.
"Besides visual enhancement, noninvasive monitoring of the wearer’s biomarkers and health indicators could be a huge future market. We’ve built several simple sensors that can detect the concentration of a molecule, such as glucose. Sensors built onto lenses would let diabetic wearers keep tabs on blood-sugar levels without needing to prick a finger. (...)
"Three fundamental challenges stand in the way of building a multipurpose contact lens. (((And when he says fundamental, he means huge.)))
"First, the processes for making many of the lens’s parts and subsystems are incompatible with one another and with the fragile polymer of the lens. To get around this problem, my colleagues and I make all our devices from scratch. (...) Most red LEDs are made of aluminum gallium arsenide, which is toxic. So before an LED can go into the eye, it must be enveloped in a biocompatible substance....
(((Etc etc. It's fun stuff. Micro-electronic mechanical systems and augmented reality, together at last! This may be seventeen long years away from any prime-time, but what's the hurry? In principle, it's less crazy than it looks.)))
