Raphael Thys
smart contact lenses
Smart contact lenses could soon put an augmented reality display directly on your eyeball. At least, that’s the basic idea behind Mojo Vision’s prototype augmented reality contact lens. If successful, and able to do everything the company claims, these smart contact lenses could make a lot of ongoing AR headset development redundant before most of it is even released.
Mojo Vision CEO is the first to test new smart contact lenses
To test out the company’s new smart contact lenses, Mojo Vision CEO Drew Perkins stepped up to the plate. Perkins and his company have been working hard to create an AR display that fits directly on your eyeball. This would give it a perfect form factor for users by taking away all the excessive hardware needed in headsets.
Mojo Vision has been working on the concept of a smart contact lens since 2015, New Atlas notes. And, its latest prototype appears to come packed to the brim with improvements. It comes with a green monochrome microLED display. This display measures less than 0.5mm in diameter and comes with a resolution of 14,000 pixels per inch.
Mojo Vision’s latest smart contact lens is also equipped with an ARM Core M0 processor, and a 5GHz radio that communicates at ultra-low latency. It’s also packed with an impressive number of accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers. This lets the lens track your eye movements precisely. It also helps to ensure the image remains stable during use – a big concern with smart contacts.
Putting an AR display on your eye
Concept: A woman uses the augmented reality features on her AR glasses Image source: scharfsinn86/Adobe
If that sounds like a lot to stuff into a small circular lens and then stick on your eye, it is. Yet somehow, Mojo Vision has managed to do just that. And, to see just how well it works sticking it on your eye, Perkins headed into Mojo’s lab near the end of June and became the first person to ever wear a feature-complete smart contact lens.
It’s an insane accomplishment, and no doubt there are still some things that Mojo Vision wants to iron out. For now, though, it’s great to see some refreshing results from the team.
Perkins shared in a blog post that he was able to easily interact with a compass to find his bearings. And that he would also view images and even use an on-screen teleprompter.
Now that Perkins has tried out the smart contact lenses, the team plans to start testing them with other users. From there, they’ll take feedback and roll it into a production-intent variation of the lenses.
There’s no timeline of when we could expect to see these smart lenses on the market, but it is an exciting prospect nonetheless.
Josh Hawkins fell in love with writing and technology at a young age. Eventually he decided to combine the two and started writing about video games, the latest tech, and all the cool gadgets he could find. Whenever he isn’t busy writing about tech or gadgets, he can usually be found enjoying a new world in a video game, or tinkering with something on his computer.