Contact lense with built in HUD

[dragon]

Kind of weird but still interesting.

A contact lens that harvests radio waves to power an LED is paving the way for a new kind of display. The lens is a prototype of a device that could display information beamed from a mobile device.

Realising that display size is increasingly a constraint in mobile devices, Babak Parviz at the University of Washington, in Seattle, hit on the idea of projecting images into the eye from a contact lens.

One of the limitations of current head-up displays is their limited field of view. A contact lens display can have a much wider field of view. "Our hope is to create images that effectively float in front of the user perhaps 50 cm to 1 m away," says Parviz.

His research involves embedding nanoscale and microscale electronic devices in substrates like paper or plastic. He also wears contact lenses. "It was a matter of putting the two together," he says.

Fitting a contact lens with circuitry is challenging. The polymer cannot withstand the temperatures or chemicals used in large-scale microfabrication, Parviz explains. So, some components – the power-harvesting circuitry and the micro light-emitting diode – had to be made separately, encased in a biocompatible material and then placed into crevices carved into the lens.

One obvious problem is powering such a device. The circuitry requires 330 microwatts but doesn't need a battery. Instead, a loop antenna picks up power beamed from a nearby radio source. The team has tested the lens by fitting it to a rabbit.

Parviz says that future versions will be able to harvest power from a user's cell phone, perhaps as it beams information to the lens. They will also have more pixels and an array of microlenses to focus the image so that it appears suspended in front of the wearer's eyes.

Despite the limited space available, each component can be integrated into the lens without obscuring the wearer's view, the researchers claim. As to what kinds of images can be viewed on this screen, the possibilities seem endless. Examples include subtitles when conversing with a foreign-language speaker, directions in unfamiliar territory and captioned photographs. The lens could also serve as a head-up display for pilots or gamers.

Mark Billinghurst, director of the Human Interface Technology Laboratory, in Christchurch, New Zealand, is impressed with the work. "A contact lens that allows virtual graphics to be seamlessly overlaid on the real world could provide a compelling augmented reality experience," he says. This prototype is an important first step in that direction, though it may be years before the lens becomes commercially available, he adds.

The University of Washington team will present their prototype at the Biomedical Circuits and Systems (BioCas 2009) conference at Beijing later this month.

link

[Grandmaster Jogurt]

Maybe I'm missing something since I've never worn contacts, but isn't an obvious issue with this that the fovea will be fixed in relation to everything? I think I can only see two solutions to this. The first is to allow you to shift the HUD around, but locking your eyes in place and moving a book along is a very unintuitive way to read; the alternative is to set up some sort of system that determines where your eyes are moving and shifts the HUD around that way as in VR. That seems a better option, but I'm unsure how feasible it is. Of course, this being developed without them noticing it's impossible to read almost anything also seems rather unrealistic.

[Sarevok]

Would not lens heat up from inefficiencies in the wireless power transfer process and electronics within ?

[Netko]

I'm assuming that they plan to use the same basic technology used in various VR helmet techs to basically fix the image, perceptually, some distance away. The newer examples of such tech from nVidia and others are actually pretty good when used with a compatible game/demo (the dynamic turn-any-game-into-3d mode doesn't work nearly as well).

One thing I don't get is why they aren't going for glasses first. A lot of people wear them, especially among the gadget-loving geek demographics that would be the logical first adopter targets for this, and a lot of the issues associated with miniaturization for the contact lens size are lessened or removed.

[Simon_Jester]

Yeah, I'd be worried about the waste heat problem; I don't want this thing to wind up melted to my eyeball. Of course, it is in thermal contact with a big watery object, so the eye itself might act as a heat sink given the wattage required to make the system work. Is that safe? I do not know.

This is an interesting idea, although I'm wondering what the pixel density is, and how it compares to the granularity of what we actually see.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Yeah, I'd be worried about the waste heat problem; I don't want this thing to wind up melted to my eyeball. Of course, it is in thermal contact with a big watery object, so the eye itself might act as a heat sink given the wattage required to make the system work. Is that safe? I do not know.

The power consumption is 300 microwatts. And, as you've noted, it's stuck to a great big heat sink. Even if it were to sit on your tabletop, un-sinked, it's going to take a very long time (if ever . . . a contact lens has enormous surface area WRT its volume) to warm up to the point where it'd be noticeable. Let alone harmful.

This is an interesting idea, although I'm wondering what the pixel density is, and how it compares to the granularity of what we actually see.

We have single-chip projectors that fit onto cellphones that presently have a resolution of 640x480. Projecting forward a bit, I'd say it's feasible to say that the resolution and granularity will be more-than-adequate for the intended purposes.

[The Spartan]

I could see this thing being useful for an outdoorsman (under the right circumstances of course) where they carry the receiver unit on their belt and they have heading, altitude, temperature, wind direction, etc. displayed in front of them. Plus I could see it being coupled with a GPS and projecting a path into their vision; "Go this way". They only kind of allude to that with the "...directions in unfamiliar territory." Not to mention it being useful for giving weather warnings. Hikers, boaters and fisherman (on a boat or not) could all benefit from it.

[Molyneux]

Interesting, but honestly, I would rather have it on a pair of glasses first.

[Lagmonster]

Interesting, but honestly, I would rather have it on a pair of glasses first.

The article notes that they decided to employ a contact lens because of the increased field of view it offers. Of course, I'm not certain how well that argument holds water.

[General Zod]

Interesting, but honestly, I would rather have it on a pair of glasses first.

I'd be concerned with the possible long term damage to your eyes from such things myself. Frankly though, even if it panned out I'd never touch the things because I refuse to wear contacts.

[Gilthan]

Interesting, but honestly, I would rather have it on a pair of glasses first.

The article notes that they decided to employ a contact lens because of the increased field of view it offers. Of course, I'm not certain how well that argument holds water.

With a slight gap where regular glasses don't fill 100% of one's field of vision around the edges, I suppose such would be a disadvantage in a few applications like fully-immersive virtual reality, but slightly bigger glasses that curved around to fit snugly against one's skin for full coverage couldn't be too hard. I'd see three uses of similar technology:

1) These contact lenses
2) Special full-coverage glasses or googles suitable even for fully-immersive VR.
3) More conventional glasses in appearance, especially if they can be transparent and look normal when the display is turned off.

Personally I'd just want #3 usually. Contact lenses are interesting, but I've never tried inserting something onto my eye, though maybe regular contact lenses users get used to it over time.

[Joviwan]

Personally I'd just want #3 usually. Contact lenses are interesting, but I've never tried inserting something onto my eye, though maybe regular contact lenses users get used to it over time.

If it was particularly uncomfortable or problematic, millions of people wouldn't be using them for corrective vision. It's sort of a "whoa, weird" thing the first few times you put them in, but they're designed by nature to be comfortable and unobtrusive, and it's very easy to tell when you're doing it wrong. If you're doing it wrong, it's uncomfortableand obstrusive.

If they start making correct vision HUD contacts, I am so right there. Hell, I'll take uncorrective HUD contacts, I have a pair of glasses. This is one of those things from Shadowrun that I always thought was friggen cool, and now there's people developing it. Possible applications are numerous.

[FSTargetDrone]

I've worn glasses for years and have no interest in contacts. In fact, I've worn eyeglasses for so long, it seems weird to be without them! As far as field-of-vision distractions that come with eyeglasses, well, I can see the frames around the extreme ends of my glasses right now, but it isn't something I normally even notice. So add me to the list of people who'd want something like this in eyeglass form first.

[Themightytom]

Would not lens heat up from inefficiencies in the wireless power transfer process and electronics within ?

Oh damn, thats quite a setback. I was in the middle of extrapolating, that if they can come up with a viable contact lense HUD they might be able to do amazing things with eyesight correction.

Not so much if your eye lashes are constantly smoldering.

[Simon_Jester]

Interesting, but honestly, I would rather have it on a pair of glasses first.

The article notes that they decided to employ a contact lens because of the increased field of view it offers. Of course, I'm not certain how well that argument holds water.

At the moment, I gather that small glasses lenses are fashionable, which does limit your field of view.

Since I have really terrible eyesight in my left eye, I have to find big glasses, which is a pain, because (like someone using a built-in HUD) I need a large field of view through the corrective lens.

Also, for the record, for all and sundry: "lens," not "lense."

[Gilthan]

Would not lens heat up from inefficiencies in the wireless power transfer process and electronics within ?

Oh damn, thats quite a setback. I was in the middle of extrapolating, that if they can come up with a viable contact lense HUD they might be able to do amazing things with eyesight correction.

Not so much if your eye lashes are constantly smoldering.

Actually they said the circuitry requires 330 microwatts. I can barely express how close 1 / 3000th of a watt is to zero power and zero heat dissipation whatsoever. In fact, your body warmth amounts to average net heat transfer of roughly 10000 microwatts per square centimeter. This can be so tiny in comparison to the natural warmth of your eye itself that you simply couldn't notice any warmth at all.

The low power involved may, though, raise questions about how it does against getting "washed out" in visibility during bright sunlight if used outdoors, although I don't know the answer there.

[Stark]

I'd imagine proper goggles with AR stuff going on would be just as effective but easier to make, cheaper, etc. Who knows what problems a bit of lag on vision would cause, though.

[Ryushikaze]

Sounds quite spiffy, but as someone who couldn't wear contacts because of the irritation they caused my eyes, I too would like a glasses or goggle option as well.

[FSTargetDrone]

I wonder how they will deal with any issues of making sure that the lens display is properly aligned to the horizon for the viewer when the lens is placed on the eye? If there is a grid- or array-type arrangement of the display elements, that might help a bit, but the lens will still need to know how it's oriented with respect to the wearer. This wouldn't be an issue with a HUD device mounted on glasses or goggles which are obviously fixed (more or less) to the wearer's head.

[dragon]

Hum so I wonder if they would look something like the contact lenses for Torhwood Children of Earth mini. Still I would don't know especially since I hate contacts.

[Simon_Jester]

I wonder how they will deal with any issues of making sure that the lens display is properly aligned to the horizon for the viewer when the lens is placed on the eye? If there is a grid- or array-type arrangement of the display elements, that might help a bit, but the lens will still need to know how it's oriented with respect to the wearer. This wouldn't be an issue with a HUD device mounted on glasses or goggles which are obviously fixed (more or less) to the wearer's head.

Anyone who can make contact lenses that correct astigmatism should be able to tackle this one; it's essentially the same problem, right?

Also, glasses have the advantage that while the HUD is fixed relative to the frame, you can adjust the angle of the frame slightly. If, say, you have a misshapen head and your ears are a millimeter or two off the same level. I'm sure there are people like that. Hell, I might be one of them; I've never really measured...

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

I wonder how they will deal with any issues of making sure that the lens display is properly aligned to the horizon for the viewer when the lens is placed on the eye? If there is a grid- or array-type arrangement of the display elements, that might help a bit, but the lens will still need to know how it's oriented with respect to the wearer. This wouldn't be an issue with a HUD device mounted on glasses or goggles which are obviously fixed (more or less) to the wearer's head.

Now that's an interesting question. The simplest way to do it would be to start it up with some sort of crosshairs on the display, so that you could check to see if it was aligned as you put it on your eye. Of course, for best results, this would mean putting on your data-contacts in dim light.

Another possible solution would be to make some of the micro-LEDs photodetectors. Then, after putting on the contact, stare at a brightly lit half black/half white card, or some similar high contrast feature that's perfectly horizontally/vertically oriented, and completely fills your field of view Then you make it so that the contact can also behave like an RF tag through that loop antenna it's using to pick up power. The electronics feeding data to the contact would then be able to work out how the contact is oriented by seeing which photodetectors are seeing the highest light levels, and set the display accordingly.

[The Spartan]

Having worn contacts when I was younger I can tell you that they're going to have to figure out how to make it level automatically somehow. You can't go readjusting the contact in your eye over and over to get it to the right orientation; it irritates your eyes. The ideal is basically in and done.

[Terralthra]

Toric lenses (lenses with a cylindrical lensing element with a defined "top" and "bottom") have been designed for years now to auto-align. The most popular current design is to have the lens gradually thicken from top to bottom. The upper eyelid pushes this thicker part to the bottom of the eye with a couple blinks.

[FSTargetDrone]

Toric lenses (lenses with a cylindrical lensing element with a defined "top" and "bottom") have been designed for years now to auto-align. The most popular current design is to have the lens gradually thicken from top to bottom. The upper eyelid pushes this thicker part to the bottom of the eye with a couple blinks.

Not being a contacts wearer, I'd never heard of such a thing. What an interesting solution!