The “Break it Down” Blog

Pictured above is a prototype contact lens developed by Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor (Assistant?! More like… crazy-awesome) Babak Parviz out of the University of Washington.

While I don’t believe the prototype can currently project a full-view HUD ontop of what you are looking at, Parviz is focusing on embedding LEDs into the lens to get the basics of display going at the “holy-shit-I-have-a-bionic-eye” level.

Before you decide to brush this off as way-off-future mumbo-jumbo, consider what Parviz does day-in and day-out:

So far, he’s shown that high-performance circuitry including microLEDs can be incorporated on to transparent, thin, flexible plastic substrates. The circuits involve making metal layers a few nanometres thick linked to LEDs that are about one third of a millimetre across. A microfabrication technique known as self-assembly relies on capillary effects to bring together pre-shaped pieces of circuit.

The challenge that the team is facing right now is deciding on how to power the lens. They are evaluating two choices:

1. Transmit power using radio waves.
2. Embed Solar cells into the lens directly

While the team cites many users for information being overlayed with your field of view I think the reality of this is that it takes us one step closer to lots of Arnold Schwarzenegger clones murdering us while wearing leather jackets.

All joking aside the team does quote things like over-laying closed captioning for hearing impaired people and you could imagine a future of walking through the Vatican or some other historical site and having the information of what you are looking at projected directly into your field of view. A natural extension of the audio-guides you can rent already.

I’m predicting a time when we can all stop talking to each other completely and dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony become some perverse past-time activity that doesn’t really bring people together.

Imagine if you could just look at someone and see their compatibility rating to you, floating above their head. Then you would know if you should go over and talk to them or not.

Yes these things are years off, but with technology like this advancing the the penetration of social networking sites, why would that be so far off? How much longer until you can combine your FaceBook and MySpace profiles together or bind them to your dating-site profile? Then just let those dating site algorithms find you a date.

It’s not too far fetched to imagine it just sticking numbers ontop of people’s heads for you.

Thanks Jens Eckels and The Guardian!