Eye of the Cyborg

Published on Tuesday, 06 December 2011 16:19

 

	By Mark Shadbolt Follow @Mark_Shadbolt

Advanced nanotechnology has paved the way for contact lenses which provide superhuman vision, mixing computerised images with regular eye function.

Much like a cyborg, the wearer would be able to call up information like their body temperature, speed or even just googling stuff.

Engineers at the University of Washington have managed to combine a flexible, biologically safe Lens with integrated lights and circuitry.

The prototype contains an LED – a small light – 0.33 mm long, it will provide the in-sight display, so far the lights don't illuminate.

The wiring was a problem because the materials needed to produce circuits are produced in extreme heat and are highly toxic to humans.

This also needed to be introduced to the soft, organic nature of the lens, which is flexible and delicate.

The way the two were amalgamated was by essentially laminating the electrics – which contains metal wires a thousandth the width of a human hair.

The development simply provides the genesis of potential in biopics, there are a number of weaknesses with the product, but they can be outweighed by the possibilities.

The contact does not yet have a number of pixels through which to see. Additionally, it doesn't yet have a power source of any note, currently only working when within a small distance from a wireless battery.

It does, however, have the potential for a lot, Babak Parviz, its designer, said: “There is a large area outside of the transparent part of the eye that we can use for placing instrumentation.”

This means that a lot of technology can still be cohered with the lens, especially since it proved safe on the eyes of rabbits.

Drivers could benefit from this technology with information on the speed and condition of their vehicle.

It also presents a lot of opportunities for on and off-line gaming, creating an augmented reality in which to operate, perhaps with even more interactivity.

It could be used in health, too, for diabetics or people with special dietary requirements. The lenses could provide them with constant, rolling information on their levels.

"People may find all sorts of applications for it that we have not thought about. Our goal is to demonstrate the basic technology and make sure it works and that it's safe," said Parviz.

A hurdle which is yet to be overcome is the radio transmitting of any of these data via radio waves to the lenses themselves.

Parvis's team had to nullify the human eyes' inability to focus on images so close to the pupil, the scientists managed to develop a lens which can shorten the focal distance of the eye.

The product hopes to be as simple to apply as usual optical aids, Parviz described the venture as: "a very small step toward [the] goal, but I think it's extremely promising.

A product recognisably close to this ideal will take quite some time, but a version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational "fairly quickly," according to Parviz.

For now the technology is embryonic, but it's a very real step towards every person in the world getting a whole new ocular sense with which to perceive the world.

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