Smart Contact Lens Prototype Puts a Micro LED Display On Top of the Eye (arstechnica.com) 37
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Since 2015, a California-based company called Mojo Vision has been developing smart contact lenses. Like smart glasses, the idea is to put helpful AR graphics in front of your eyes to help accomplish daily tasks. Now, a functioning prototype brings us closer to seeing a final product. In a blog post this week, Drew Perkins, the CEO of Mojo Vision, said he was the first to have an "on-eye demonstration of a feature-complete augmented reality smart contact lens." In an interview with CNET, he said he's been wearing only one contact at a time for hour-long durations. Eventually, Mojo Vision would like users to be able to wear two Mojo Lens simultaneously and create 3D visual overlays, the publication said. According to his blog, the CEO could see a compass through the contact and an on-screen teleprompter with a quote written on it. He also recalled viewing a green, monochromatic image of Albert Einstein to CNET.
At the heart of the lens is an Arm M0 processor and a Micro LED display with 14,000 pixels per inch. It's just 0.02 inches (0.5 mm) in diameter with a 1.8-micron pixel pitch. Perkins claimed it's the "smallest and densest display ever created for dynamic content." Developing the contact overall included a focus on physics and electronics miniaturization, Perkins wrote. Mojo Lens developed its power management system with "medical-grade micro-batteries" and a proprietary power management integrated circuit. The Mojo Lens also uses a custom-configured magnetometer (CNET noted this drives the compass Perkins saw), accelerometer, and gyroscope for tracking. [...]
A contact lens sounds like it has the potential to be even more discreet than AR headgear posing as regular Ray-Bans. But the current prototype uses a "relay accessory," as Mojo Vision's rep put it, worn around the neck. It includes a processor, GPU, and 5 GHz radio for sending and receiving data to and from the lens. According to CNET, the accessory also sends information "back to computers that track the eye movement data for research." Perkins' blog said this tech required custom ASIC designs. [...] The current prototype also uses a hat with an integrated antenna for easier connecting, CNET reported; though, we'd expect this to be omitted from a final product. "There's no firm release date for the Mojo Lens, which could be the first AR contact lens to reach consumers," adds Ars. "Near-term goals include getting potential partners, investors, and journalists to try the smart lens."
At the heart of the lens is an Arm M0 processor and a Micro LED display with 14,000 pixels per inch. It's just 0.02 inches (0.5 mm) in diameter with a 1.8-micron pixel pitch. Perkins claimed it's the "smallest and densest display ever created for dynamic content." Developing the contact overall included a focus on physics and electronics miniaturization, Perkins wrote. Mojo Lens developed its power management system with "medical-grade micro-batteries" and a proprietary power management integrated circuit. The Mojo Lens also uses a custom-configured magnetometer (CNET noted this drives the compass Perkins saw), accelerometer, and gyroscope for tracking. [...]
A contact lens sounds like it has the potential to be even more discreet than AR headgear posing as regular Ray-Bans. But the current prototype uses a "relay accessory," as Mojo Vision's rep put it, worn around the neck. It includes a processor, GPU, and 5 GHz radio for sending and receiving data to and from the lens. According to CNET, the accessory also sends information "back to computers that track the eye movement data for research." Perkins' blog said this tech required custom ASIC designs. [...] The current prototype also uses a hat with an integrated antenna for easier connecting, CNET reported; though, we'd expect this to be omitted from a final product. "There's no firm release date for the Mojo Lens, which could be the first AR contact lens to reach consumers," adds Ars. "Near-term goals include getting potential partners, investors, and journalists to try the smart lens."
applications (Score:2)
I see where this is headed... https://images.agoramedia.com/... [agoramedia.com]
Re: (Score:2)
We'll see if they can keep focus...
It needs a camera (Score:5, Interesting)
Not only is the lens-integrated camera needed for doing AR well (if you can see, it can see; the rest of the hardware can be obscured) but you obviously want to be able to record video anyway.
There are obvious and severe privacy implications all around, but an eyetap-equivalent contact lens is the holy grail for AR.
Re: (Score:2)
To start recording, do you poke yourself in the eye?
Re: (Score:2)
That could be an option for very special people, or you could conceivably use a control on the collar device, or on a smartphone or smartwatch.
Re: (Score:2)
I can imagine in the near future the support device will be small enough to wear behind the ear like a hearing aid. Then is will be easy to wear and interact with.
Re: (Score:2)
Its controlled by eye movements. Look down, look up, stare at tits, starts recording.
Re: (Score:3)
This just puts a very small screen so close to your eye that you'd become near-sighted within a few years of heavy use.
Also, yes the bigger privacy issue is that human brains forget unwillingly, computers don't unless ordered to. Making the recording devices so imperceptible is only going to cause more problems, in a world that still hasn't adapted to the current levels of deployment.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, the holy grail for AR would be the interface drawing in the brain's visual cortex.
Let me just say fuu[...]uuck all of that. I don't want anything interfering with my brain unless it's malfunctioning so badly that it's worth massive ongoing risk to patch it. You can do enough wacky stuff to the brain by manipulating the senses, thanks.
This just puts a very small screen so close to your eye that you'd become near-sighted within a few years of heavy use.
That suggests a question though, how heavy?
Re: (Score:1)
Let me just say fuu[...]uuck all of that. I don't want anything interfering with my brain unless it's malfunctioning so badly that it's worth massive ongoing risk to patch it. You can do enough wacky stuff to the brain by manipulating the senses, thanks.
But drinking coffee is OK? Messing with the brain has been underway since our ancestors discovered fermented fruit and funky mushrooms...
Re: It needs a camera (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You don't necessarily want the camera in the lens, because:
1) You don't want the additional hardware sitting on your eye, and the associated added costs of the lens (which can be lost, broken, etc.).
2) You don't want the camera to go blind when you blink or sleep.
3) You don't want the camera lens obscured by the environment of your eye, including mucus, tears, and eyelashes.
4) You don't want the camera to be subjected to the normal rapid motion and vibration that your eyes normally experience, let a
Re:Alignment? (Score:4, Interesting)
I was given to understand that contact lenses exist for astigmatism which maintain orientation by being weighted on the bottom.
Re: Alignment? (Score:2)
Depending on the lens' capabilities, perhaps the answer is "don't care". Since the built-in accelerometer can tell which way is down, maybe put the bottom of the image that way. (that is, align the _image_, not the lens).
If the lens has a retina-facing camera, it could map the retina, and ensure the image always has a given retinal alignment, perhaps after an initial calibration routine.
I can't think it all the way through, but I can imagine the accelerometers could also map the human's eye and head movemen
Eye opening ... (Score:2)
From TFA: "medical-grade micro-batteries"
Just what I want literally on my eye ...
Re: (Score:2)
Since getting contacts, I can no longer ride in checked baggage.
Cyberpunk (Score:2)
world is getting closer and closer every day.
Re: Cyberpunk (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Cyberpunk world is getting closer and closer every day.
Funnily enough, one of the most prominent novels which features smart contacts extensively isn't considered cyberpunk. Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End features ubiquitous smart contact usage, including by children, yet otherwise includes very few cyberpunk tropes. The advanced weaponry posited in the story is owned by the US government, and not a dystopian megacorporation as is typical in cyberpunk. (And the US government is not dystopian either.) Highly recommended.
How in the heck do they focus an image? (Score:2)
These are always described as a screen on your eyeball, but that can't really be what's happening. Are they projecting on your retina?
Using a low-power laser (or 3) could eliminate the need for most optics (could use micro-machines to wiggle mirrors to scan), but I'll be dead before they finish a long-term study on the effects of laser projection on your retina long-term.
Re: How in the heck do they focus an image? (Score:2)
Exactly my point. Retinal projection, as you put it, could possibly work (you would need one SEL per pixel, plus the miniature micro lens element that infinity focuses the laser before shooting into the eye) but that itself presents the actual problem of NotBeingInventedYet, which is a serious problem indeed.
Unless you mean traditional retinal projection, which merely requires traditional optics to focus an image at infinity and put in front of the eyeâ¦
Re: How in the heck do they focus an image? (Score:2)
Interestingly, laser projectors are simultaneously in focus at every point.
I have personally tried this out when I worked in proximity to a big event laser projector in the 90s (back when HDTV was still analog and a rarely-seen creature of the studio, so, yeah, a long time ago).
This projector was a beast, requiring water cooling, made as a prototype with a fair number of mil-spec parts.
You could place your hand, or a flat or curved surface into the beam close to the scanning turret, and see the same image t
Re: (Score:2)
For some reason you think that solid state lasers are collimated coming out the semiconductor, but sadly they are not. They require optics to perform the collimation that simply cannot (with today's technology) be miniaturized to fit into a contact lens. The index of refraction of optical materials is an order of magnitude too small.
What you were experiencing with your event laser projector unfortunately doesn't apply. These are totally different technologies.
Re: How in the heck do they focus an image? (Score:2)
I assumed, but didn't say, you'd need a collimator.
Re: How in the heck do they focus an image? (Score:2)
Awful oil-diffraction projector of the day:
https://gearsource.com/stock-i... [gearsource.com]
Vaporware (Score:3)
This cannot possibly work. Your vision cannot focus on a display that is on your eye.
If the battery is small enough to fit on your eye, the battery life would be awful.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, 3D will be very difficult, as the eye moves to focus on something closer or further away, the apparent depth of the virtual image will shift radically. I guess they could try to fix it in software but that will require good eye tracking.
@editors: please, only cite the original source (Score:1)
in this piece, it makes no sense to cite Ars - their article is a derivative of the CNET original.
The possibilities! (Score:3)
This could be helpful in a range of industries. Look at something and see details about it.
The possibilities are literally endless!
The police could instantly identify a suspect; shop owners and bartenders could instantly identify regulars (including any problems with them (debt, history of aggression)); people who work on pipes in the ground could immediately be shown the correct pipe to work on; a surgeon could be given information while he's working; etc.
Weird attempt at metonymy (Score:2)
> posing as regular Ray-Bans
Since when does "Ray-Bans" serve as a generic noun with the meaning of "glasses?
Surely the intent is to hint at AR glasses that are not some dorky, ill fitting, heavy contraptions but things that could be mistaken with proper, well designed glasses, but using "Ray-Bans" as a generic noun feels like overdoing the not trying to come off as a nerd part.
perfect for reading while driving! (Score:2)
Re: perfect for reading while driving! (Score:2)
And sharks. Can't do lasers if you're not doing sharks.
Re: (Score:2)
Basic optics fail (Score:2)
The major physics problem not being addressed here is how this contact lens display sits on the lens of the eye and somehow manages to form an image at the focal plane of the eye. This violates optical physics principles unless they have magically created a sheet optical element that can provide infinity focus. HOEs could possibly meet the thinness requirement, but not the distance requirement.
Unless there is some information about the optical path of this contact lens, it is thoroughly in the vapor ware de
Dynamic Iris (Score:2)
Cancellation Parity (Score:1)