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A glance to the left. A flick to the right. As my eyes flitted around the room, I moved through a virtual interface only visible to me—scrolling through a calendar, looking up commute times home, and even controlling music playback. It's all I theoretically need to do to use Mojo Lens, a smart contact lens coming from a company called Mojo Vision.
The California-based company, which has been quiet about what it's been working on for five years, has finally shared its plan for the world's "first true smart contact lens." But let's be clear: This is not a product you'll see on store shelves next autumn. It's in the research and development phase—a few years away from becoming a real product. In fact, the demos I tried did not even involve me plopping on a contact lens—they used virtual reality headsets and held up bulky prototypes to my eye, as though I was Sherlock Holmes with a magnifying glass.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/mojo-vision-smart-contact-lens/
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Freeman on Tuesday January 21 2020, @06:10PM (6 children)
I used to have contact lenses with a backup pair of glasses. Now, I just have glasses. Contact lenses get dust in them or the like, easily dry your eyes out, and are a pain to take care of. Insert technology for a display into the whole mess of just being able to see right and I'm not touching that with a 10ft pole. Then again, people get colored contacts, because they want different color eyes. There's no accounting for taste.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday January 21 2020, @07:41PM (2 children)
There is also the matter of alignment. Either they're going to have the image in just one eye or they will have a hell of a time making sure both lenses have the exact same rotation. With fine details like text, it matter a lot and even a little error will be intolerable.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @03:36AM
It would probably be spherical screen that could be calibrated in some fashion. I'm not sure how else you'd assure proper alignment on this sort of a shape.
On the plus side, if they made this work, it would take eye coordination out of the equation. They'd just have to make the eye focus as if the objects were where they wanted to appear.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snospar on Wednesday January 22 2020, @08:06AM
Contact lenses already have to be perfectly aligned in order to correct for astigmatism. The lenses are created such that the bottom of the lens is heavier than the top and they autorotate into position using nothing more than gravity (and the natural lubrication of the eye).
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by Nuke on Tuesday January 21 2020, @08:24PM (2 children)
Tolerance of contact lenses varies greatly with the individual. It is better to have naturally "wet" eyes.
I have worn them for years and have no more trouble with dust than about once a month (about the same as if I did not wear them?), and I do a lot of practical outdoor stuff. Taking care of them is putting them in soaking solution each night (~30 seconds), and putting them into my eyes each morning (~60 seconds). Once a week I change the soaking solution (~60 seconds). I wear reading glasses "over the top" of the contact lenses for close work, and I spend more time cleaning those glasses in total than I spend on caring for the contact lenses.
I wear hard contact lenses, but I believe soft lenses do require more care, are more expensive, and optically inferior. Newbies seem to prefer soft lenses as they are quicker to acclimatise to.
I'd put contact lenses among the greatest handful of inventions of all time, up there with anesthetics and the wheel. From fuzzy vision when I get up in the morning, things suddenly become crystal clear, like a New Testament miracle, and once in, unlike glasses, I am completely unaware of their presence. Contact lenses are optically superior to glasses because in effect they change the front refractive surface of the cornea to what it should be, OTOH glasses change the light rays en-route at a distance from that surface.
As for putting a display into them - no way, even if it were ever possible which I highly doubt. As someone else said, a "flick to the left" etc would not work because the lenses move with the eye, and even if it did it would be a recipe for eye ache. I can't even grasp what the point of it would be.
(Score: 2) by coolgopher on Wednesday January 22 2020, @06:47AM
Personally I much prefer to put in my contact lenses before going to sleep, and take them out in the morning.
No joke [allaboutvision.com].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 22 2020, @06:59AM
Never could poke myself in the eye, will just have to wait for brain implant. Will also have to wait for qdvertising being a thing.