contact lens with camera

[dragon]

And to think people were complaining about the privacy issues with google glasses now people will have cameras that you can't see. So now in addition to the thermographic lens we have camera lens. I wonder what the quality of the pictures will be.

Google has invented a new smart contact lens with an integrated camera. The camera would be very small and sit near the edge of the contact lens so that it doesn’t obscure your vision. By virtue of being part of the contact lens, the camera would naturally follow your gaze, allowing for a huge range of awesome applications, from the basis of a bionic eye system for blind and visually impaired people, through to early warning systems (the camera spots a hazard before your brain does), facial recognition, and superhuman powers (telescopic and infrared/night vision). In related news, Google Glass is publicly available today in the US for one day only (still priced at $1500).

This new smart contact lens would have a tiny CMOS camera sensor just below your pupil, control circuit, and some method of receiving power wirelessly (more on that later). Because an imaging sensor, by definition, has to absorb light, it wouldn’t be transparent — but it could probably be color matched to your iris, so that your eyes don’t look too freaky.

A diagram of Google’s smart contact lens with integrated camera [Image credit: Patent Bolt]
As you can probably imagine, there are some rather amazing applications if you have two cameras embedded in your contact lenses. You can’t do much in the way of image processing on the contact lens itself, but you could stream it to a nearby smartphone or head-mounted display (i.e. Google Glass), where a more powerful computer could perform all sorts of real-time magic. Google suggests that the cameras might warn you if there’s oncoming traffic at a crosswalk — useful for a normal-sighted person, but utterly invaluable for a blind or partially sighted person. For me, the more exciting possibilities include facial recognition (a la Terminator), and abilities that verge on the super or transhuman, such as being able to digitally zoom in and infrared thermal night vision. (Read: What is transhumanism, or, what does it mean to be human?)

Terminator enhanced vision display stillBeyond the medical- and consumer-oriented applications, you can also imagine the possibilities if police were equipped with contact lenses that could spot criminal faces in a crowd, or a bulge under a jacket that could be a concealed weapon. Oh, and the most exciting/deadly application of them all: Soldiers with smart contact lenses that alert them to incoming fire, provide infrared vision that can see through smoke, real-time range finding for more accurate sniping…
Single pixel contact lens display, in a rabbit's eye

This invention, from the Google X skunkworks lab, comes in the form of a patent that was filed in 2012 and was recently published by the US PTO. Earlier this year, Google announced that it was working on a smart contact lens for diabetics that provides a real-time glucose level reading from your tears. As far as we can tell, there’s no timeline for real-world trials of either variety of contact lens — but we can tell you that the technology to create such devices is very nearly here. Way back in 2011, a smart contact lens with an LED display was trialed in the lab.

Moving forward, there are some concerns about power delivery (there’s no space for a battery, of course, so it has to be beamed in wirelessly), and whether it’s wise to have a wireless device implanted in a rather sensitive organ, but I don’t think these will be game-breaking problems. For now, we’re talking about fairly chunky contact lenses that are best suited to laboratory testing — but it shouldn’t be more than a few years until real, comfortable smart contact lenses come to market.

link

[Tribble]

Are these the first contact lenses with cameras in them? Or the first contact lenses of this type intended for mass consumption by the public? Whenever I see stuff like this in the news I tend to think it's already been available for quite a while to special ops/intelligence groups. For example, I'm sure agencies like the CIA had cameras in glasses long before Google glasses came out.

It was bad enough when this stuff was restricted to CIA, CSIS etc. But now even your average street cop will soon be able to ID you and pull up all available information just by looking at you. And at least in Canada's case, he/she will also be able to pull up any electronic information/communications on you such as emails, websites visited etc, without a warrant. What a lovely combination.

[Borgholio]

But now even your average street cop will soon be able to ID you and pull up all available information just by looking at you.

So? We can do the same thing. Pull up stats on how many complaints are filed against the cop, as well as his name and badge number. Go one step further and record every interaction with the police. Cops will behave much more often if even 1 out of 100 civilians have video cameras in their glasses or contact lenses, especially if an app is developed to allow automated submissions of a cop's "mugshot" and alleged abuse to a public database and / or the FBI.

I will admit this does have implications as far as privacy are concerned, but there are also bright sides as far as protection against abuse from law enforcement, or as evidence against any crimes witnessed within sight.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It would certainly make eyewitness testimony a lot more useful in court.

I'm just encouraged to know that stuff like this is being developed, since it's all working towards being able to implant bionic eyes to visually impaired people like me.

[General Zod]

I can't wait until the general public gets ahold of these. It's going to bring a whole new level to cat videos, movies of babies shitting themselves, voyeurism and pov porn.

[Borgholio]

Think about a new level of online gaming. You can FRAPS not only your gameplay, but your entire computer setup, the bowl of chips and salsa on your desk, and which brand of beer you're chugging.

[Dass.Kapital]

Okay...as some one who wears contact lenses.

How big is this 'Tiny' grain of sand PERMANENTLY embedded in your contact lens?

Having managed to have flakes of rust deposit in a contact lens...yeah, this right here does not inspire me with wearer comfort...

So...it can collect images...

..Then it what? Again transmits them to a screen some where else? May as well keep the 'Smart glasses' for now since they seem to have an integral screen to project images onto.

Just some thoughts.

[Tribble]

But now even your average street cop will soon be able to ID you and pull up all available information just by looking at you.

So? We can do the same thing. Pull up stats on how many complaints are filed against the cop, as well as his name and badge number. Go one step further and record every interaction with the police. Cops will behave much more often if even 1 out of 100 civilians have video cameras in their glasses or contact lenses, especially if an app is developed to allow automated submissions of a cop's "mugshot" and alleged abuse to a public database and / or the FBI.

I will admit this does have implications as far as privacy are concerned, but there are also bright sides as far as protection against abuse from law enforcement, or as evidence against any crimes witnessed within sight.

It's not the cameras per see which bother me, it's the fact that it's coupled with legislation which allows any law enforcement officer at any time to search your emails, phone conversations, texts, websites visited etc without a warrant. That's a big jump in police powers in Canada, as searching electronic communications without a warrant used to be restricted to "exigent circumstances" or national security. And it's also coupled with vaguely defined legislation essentially banning "bullying" "hate speech" "inciting civil unrest" etc. Oh, and wearing masks is during a protest is essentially outlawed too - they will know everyone involved in a protest at all times. IMO the potential for government abuse is very high, far more than any potential benefit citizens gain in return.

[Borgholio]

They don't need contact lenses to check our personal records, they do that already.

[Iroscato]

Personally I'd be more cautious of the circuitry blowing or overheating than the potential for misuse, especially in the first few years of it being commercially available. Those things are attached to your fucking eyes, for god's sake. Great stuff though, good to see how far we're coming along with this line of technology.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Whilst that is a concern, this is only a proof-of-concept model, not the finished product. They'll be years more work before we see consumer versions.

[Block]

How long after these come out do you think it will be before some asshole will start hacking people's eyes?

[Borgholio]

How long after these come out do you think it will be before some asshole will start hacking people's eyes?

Probably fairly quickly but I can't imagine the wireless range will be long enough for a hacker to glean anything truly useful unless he's in close proximity for awhile.

[Korvan]

Personally I'd be more cautious of the circuitry blowing or overheating than the potential for misuse, especially in the first few years of it being commercially available. Those things are attached to your fucking eyes, for god's sake. Great stuff though, good to see how far we're coming along with this line of technology.

I'm more worried that any home movies I take will feature a large number of cleavage shots. It's going to be a ton of work to edit out every involuntary twitch that results in the focus being on boobs.

[Darmalus]

Personally I'd be more cautious of the circuitry blowing or overheating than the potential for misuse, especially in the first few years of it being commercially available. Those things are attached to your fucking eyes, for god's sake. Great stuff though, good to see how far we're coming along with this line of technology.

I'm more worried that any home movies I take will feature a large number of cleavage shots. It's going to be a ton of work to edit out every involuntary twitch that results in the focus being on boobs.

It will be interesting to have an actual record of what I look at during the day. I may be active for 16 to 18 hours a day, but I probably only clearly remember a few minutes on average at best.

I imagine the sheer number of boob butt and cleavage glances by both genders over the course of the day will cause some sort of uproar for a while before finally being just accepted as part of human nature. That or horribly oppressive reactionary legislation.

[salm]

It would be cool if the lenses also containes some sort of projector that would make it possible to hook up two of these devices and directly see what the other person is seeing.
This would be even cooler if the camera recording the image worn by the first person was a 180 degree fisheye lens.
The recorded image would then be projected into the second persons eye undistorted so that the second person could look around in the entire cameras fild of view.

[Borgholio]

I imagine the sheer number of boob butt and cleavage glances by both genders over the course of the day will cause some sort of uproar for a while before finally being just accepted as part of human nature.

When a pretty girl walks by, I can't help but admire the appropriately jiggly parts. In the company of my wife, I try to find something else to stare at out of respect. I can't imaging she'd be too happy if, say for instance, I witnessed a car accident or something and halfway through the video of watching them try to pry the cars apart, there's 30 seconds of staring at someone's perfect ass before I catch myself and look back at the main event.

[Darmalus]

I imagine the sheer number of boob butt and cleavage glances by both genders over the course of the day will cause some sort of uproar for a while before finally being just accepted as part of human nature.

When a pretty girl walks by, I can't help but admire the appropriately jiggly parts. In the company of my wife, I try to find something else to stare at out of respect. I can't imaging she'd be too happy if, say for instance, I witnessed a car accident or something and halfway through the video of watching them try to pry the cars apart, there's 30 seconds of staring at someone's perfect ass before I catch myself and look back at the main event.

Both studies and personal conversations have basically convinced be that both genders do this. Like I was saying, an uproar for a while before everyone accepts that their shit stinks too. Tho I do imagine there would be a lot of fighting and reality TV in the mean time. It'll take society a bit of time to adjust when a wall of Little White Lies gets brutally torn down and the modern concept of privacy slowly erodes to nothing.

"You kept looking down her shirt!" "You spent more time admiring his butt!" "But you...!" "Oh yeah?! You..." rawr rawr rawr.