An illustration of Sony’s smart contact lenses, showing the different components of the photo-capturing lenses.
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Google says that its patented lenses could be used to cure presbyopia, an age-related condition in which people’s eyes stiffen and their ability to focus is diminished or lost.
Yes, you’ll be able to record videos and take photos with a teeny camera on top of your eye, with a simple blink. If you don’t want to mess with a smartphone and would rather not take a photo every time you blink, Sony describes an on/off switch right on the lenses.
With Google and Samsung having already filed patents for contact lenses with tiny, built-in cameras, these things seem inevitable, and they have the potential to change everything about the way we interact with each other… for better or worse.
There are now three technology companies that have filed patents for smart contact lenses after Sony joined Samsung and Google. The smart intraocular lens will adjust its focus in response to the accommodation forces the ciliary muscles apply on the lens capsule, either directly or indirectly, the patent document said. This would allow the video to be played without the noticeable blinking. The sophistication of the these smart contact lenses requires technology that wouldn’t fit comfortably on a lens.
These piezoelectric sensors would sense how long eyelids remain closed to discern between conscious blinks and unconscious blinks.
Similarly, Sony’s patent explains a display showing additional controls that can be activated by a “tilt sensor”.
This includes a sci-fi sounding electronic lens created to be installed in a flexible polymeric material to fit inside the surface of an eye’s lens capsule by solidifying the fluid in the capsule.
To power the device, Google’s patent mentions an “energy harvesting antenna”, which doesn’t at all bring the Matrix to mind.
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Google is only one step away from taking the Glass idea a bit further and integrating virtual reality inside the eyeball, by using either the intra-ocular device or contact lens, as Sony might.
