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Biotech Science Technology

Scientists Create Contact Lenses That Zoom When You Blink Twice (cnet.com) 68

Posted by BeauHD from the stuff-of-science-fiction dept.
Scientists at the University of California San Diego have created a contact lens, controlled by eye movements, that can zoom in if you blink twice. "In the simplest of terms, the scientists measured the electrooculographic signals generated when eyes make specific movements (up, down, left, right, blink, double blink) and created a soft biomimetic lens that responds directly to those electric impulses," reports CNET. "The lens created was able to change its focal length depending on the signals generated." From the report: Incredibly, the lens works regardless of whether the user can see or not. It's not about the sight, it's about the electricity produced by specific movements. The researchers believe this innovation could be used in "visual prostheses, adjustable glasses, and remotely operated robotics in the future."
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Scientists Create Contact Lenses That Zoom When You Blink Twice More

Scientists Create Contact Lenses That Zoom When You Blink Twice

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  • iLens (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Monday July 29, 2019 @10:11PM (#59009802) Journal

    Steve Jobs: "You're blinking wrong"

    • Was that zoom in, or zoom out though?

      • I feel like I need to post this further up since it seems like no one else has noticed this yet: The abstract of the paper itself doesn't use the word "zoom". This addition appears to be the work of the geniuses at CNET.

        It can't zoom. Unless I'm a moron or I've missed something really important here, from the description there's no way it could possibly zoom. I may not be an expert in optics, but there's no way a simple, single tiny lens could do that. (Consider this: If a single deformable lens could z

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      Also, I wonder how much those iLens will cost. :P

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ranbot ( 2648297 )

        Also, I wonder how much those iLens will cost. :P

        Less than their proprietary charging cable.

    • Bill Gates once had to sleep in the guest room of his new mansion because the giant wall sized tv in his bedroom only responded to spoken commands (and wasn't) and had no hardware based "off" switch.

      These contact lenses had better be easy to remove.

  • don't get so close to me...

  • Nope (Bad Headline) (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    It's a proof of concept. They show that they could use the electrooculographic signal from muscle movements to alter the lens shape. There is no lens that you can actually put in someone's eye (yet).

    • It's a proof of concept. They show that they could use the electrooculographic signal from muscle movements to alter the lens shape. There is no lens that you can actually put in someone's eye (yet).

      Hopefully, "on" - they're talking about contact lenses ...

      • If it is under the eyelid, it is within the eye.

      • Actually, there are lenses that can be surgically implanted in your eye if the chambers are deep enough. Incision is above the pupil and under the eyelid so there's nothing to impede vision and the stitches aren't visible.

        Blink twice and zoom with that, and you'd be a fairly real-deal cyborg-in-process.

    • imagine a gust of air, like from an open car window while driving, and you reflex blink a few times, zooming in and out and in and out, get get nauseated, puke over everything, zooming in and out in and out, and causing a thousand car pileup on the highway.
  • and it will look normal, Blink twice and it will zoom in, but blink three times and you will never see again.

    • and it will look normal, Blink twice and it will zoom in, but blink three times and you will never see again.

      This is going to end up like the pen from goldeneye.

  • It's not going be complete unless it makes the 6 million dollar man sound. How else will people know when you're using your bionic implants?

  • Easter Egg? (Score:5, Funny)

    by alaskana98 ( 1509139 ) on Monday July 29, 2019 @11:10PM (#59009994)
    And you get 30x zoom if you look: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Blink Twice and yell Start! ;)

    • Poking your eyes to do Ctrl+Alt+Delete is gonna hurt. Also known as the Moe Howard maneuver. I got cataracts and thought it was the Azure Cloud.

      Let the Microsoft Lens (TM) jokes roll...

  • Imagine the first time you accidentally get them out of sync. So you blink twice and they keep flip-flopping.

    You'd probably adjust pretty quickly, but I wouldn't want to be driving the first time it happened.

    • Imagine the first time you accidentally get them out of sync. So you blink twice and they keep flip-flopping.

      You'd probably adjust pretty quickly, but I wouldn't want to be driving the first time it happened.

      So, just wink twice?

    • That was my first thought. Glare hits you from a mirror on a passing car and you squint. That triggers the blink twice zoom, and now you're driving zoomed in. Sure, if it works as designed you can fix it fairly quickly, but damn that's a little scary.

  • The lens can change its focal length (very slightly), which would affect the range of distances over which the wearer could focus. Down with junk journalism!

    • Re:Not a zoom lens (Score:5, Informative)

      by hankwang ( 413283 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @01:49AM (#59010342) Homepage

      Actually, it's neither a zoom lens nor a *contact* lens. It was a soft , deformable lens controlled by a 5 kV voltage that I'd not want anywhere close to my face for safety reasons. They showed a test person wearing electrodes on the face but not wearing a lens; the lens was at a safe distance in a measurement rig.

      That said, I'd love to have glasses that I could switch hands-free between reading mode and long distance mode and that don't look like I'm a Borg. Multifocal/bifocal glasses are an awful compromise.

      This link to the article was full text for me (after disabling javascript to stop an infinite reload loop):
      https://onlinelibrary.wiley.co... [wiley.com]

      • When my wife got progressive lenses I was worried there would be an adjustment period, or reduced performance, but no it was just an instant improvement for her. And she has different vision in each eye, both heavily corrected.

        Expensive, but worth it.

        • I had an adjustment period, but it lasted like maybe 36 hours.

          My problem with them is that while its nice to have a gradient of focal lengths, too often the "right" focal length for some distances is in tiny band that requires a fixed head position. It's a killer on a large desktop monitor, and I had to get fixed-focal length lenses for computer use that were optimized for desktop-type distances.

          I don't know that "line" bifocals would be any better, but I do have a friend who is an orthodontist who uses th

        • On the flip side, I'm one of the folks that never really could adjust to progressives. It was just such a pain trying to constantly adjust to wherever the sweet spot was for where I was looking. I've found that I much prefer traditional trifocals. [shrug]

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by CapS ( 83352 )

        ...That said, I'd love to have glasses that I could switch hands-free between reading mode and long distance mode and that don't look like I'm a Borg. Multifocal/bifocal glasses are an awful compromise....

        Something close to this has been available for years, there are eyeglasses that can change focus when you touch the frame. It's not quite touch-free but it's probably better than the usual multifocal/bifocal glasses.

        Here's an old article that I dug up, I'm not sure what brands are available with this technology but I'd guess there are a few to choose from:

        https://qctimes.com/lifestyles... [qctimes.com]

      • That said, I'd love to have glasses that I could switch hands-free between reading mode and long distance mode and that don't look like I'm a Borg. Multifocal/bifocal glasses are an awful compromise.

        The only problem I've had with mine is when I take them off and wear the (single) prescription sports glasses I use for riding my bike. They're fine for reading traffic signs, but when I look down at the GPS I keep tilting my head up and down trying to figure out why I can't see it right.

  • bloop-bloop-bloop-bloop-bloop

  • When it senses Danger.. (Score:3)

    by neoRUR ( 674398 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @02:31AM (#59010406)

    When it senses Danger, it goes all black, so as not to stress you out..

  • Zoom in on the reflection. Enhance. Wait. Freeze it. Rotate 90 degrees. Reverse the image. Zoom in further. Enhance. There!

  • ...until I get something in my eye, and then get nauseous from the lenses constantly zooming and unzooming as I try to blink it out.
    And what happens if both lenses get out of sync...

    I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it...

  • Eye movement and blinking work badly as an input device to a machine. That is why eye-tracking for computer input has not taken off, despite being available for decades.
    The reason is simple: Your eyes are your input devices; what you use to orient yourself in the world. Moving them around freely has always been, and is essential to daily life.

    Blinking is done subconsciously and regularly, and in natural circumstances when you do need to blink twice, you do need to blink twice, and the least thing you need t

  • Superpowers! (Score:5, Funny)

    by jersey_emt ( 846314 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @06:23AM (#59010844) Homepage
    If you get these contacts, and look up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, blink right, blink left, do you automatically gain superpowers?

  • The FUCK? Did I just wake up from a coma? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Shane_Optima ( 4414539 ) on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @07:06AM (#59010942) Journal
    I actually skimmed TFA, that's how baffled I was, but it wasn't of much use. Did I just wake up from a 150 year coma or something? A CONTACT LENS? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong but aren't these things rather tiny and rather... transparent? How in the fuck is this even remotely possible with even the most cutting edge tech. I mean, forget trivial details like power source and the blink detection, the optics alone...

    The lens created was able to change its focal length depending on the signals generated. Therefore the lens could literally zoom in the blink of an eye.

    Wait, hmmm... maybe by "changing the focal length" they actually mean focusing on things at different distances. That makes a *little* more sense; the contact lens could presumably do that with a some subtle flexing. I assume that's what the scientists invented and the dumbassed pop sci reporter said omgzoomsinwhenyoublinkhowcoolisTHAT, and ran with it. Let's check... ah ok:

    In the current work, a novel human–machine interface is developed to use electrooculographic signals generated by eye movements to control the motions and the change of focal length of a biomimetic soft lens.

    Yeah, no mention of "zoom" in the abstract, just the focal length. So basically, these are just glorified bifocals. Sigh.

    Dumbassed pop sci news strikes again.

    (On this note, I find it really amusing how preachy and pretentious online news sources are getting with their paywalls these days. If there actually were an online newspaper that was halfway trustworthy and halfway competent, sure it would be worth $5 a month, hell if it had a reasonable amount of content it would be worth $15 a month easy, but here it is 2019 and they're still all such self-important, lazy assclowns who can't be half as accurate, as comprehensive or as interesting as a bunch of petty, squabbling dorks editing Wikipedia somehow manage to be.

    I wish one of the big names would just swallow their pride, admit their entire industry is a bit of a sham and come up with some sort of a paid, curated wiki-like news site, driven by reporters but proactively responding to feedback and contributions.)

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Come on, just zoom? No split screen, slow motion, Quantel?

  • Zoom. Enhance. Zoom. Enhance.

  • Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, double-blink, blink = contact lens god-mode.

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