Digital Contact Lenses Become Reality!

Would you ever want to wear these contact lenses? Possibly in a few years, advances in technology will allow us to fit hardware onto contact lenses that would project our emails right in front of our eyes! Thanks to a team from Washington University, this far-fetched idea may soon become a reality.

Prototype trials have recently been completed. By putting nanometer thin layers of metal along with light emitting diodes (LED) that measure one third of a millimeter across onto contacts, not only could they let a user read his or her emails, without the aid of a handheld device, it's also hopeful that they could augment vision in real time. This would allow the user to bring up directions, reviews and other useful information all in real time from the Internet.

Of course these aren't available yet. The prototypes work only when they are within centimeters of a wireless battery. (Currently, power sources are not small enough.) It's also still unclear whether there are unknown side effects to wearing electrical circuits directly on your eyes. While still in the very early phases of testing, the team is hopeful for the future of this new technology.