Before Schwarzenegger became the governor of California, he was known to don a Terminator costume every now and then and assume super robotic powers in a few movies of the same name. What if humans today could virtually see what Arnold’s fictional character saw?
Babak Avir ParvizToday, seeing the real world accompanied by augmented data superimposed on a visual field is no longer reserved for Cyborg’s only. According to Babak Avir Parviz, Innovation Associate Professor at the University of Washington, he and his students are already producing such devices in small batches in their laboratory.
Called "A Twinkle in the Eye," these lenses have been fabricated with an LED, a small radio chip and an antenna.The unit is powered wirelessly by the RF electrical signal and represents the start of research that could eventually lead to screens mounted onto contact lenses inside your eyes.
Twinkle in the Eye
Those screens will be transparent and will overlay information onto the real world, like we are now seeing in Augmented Reality iPhone applications. The lenses are being tested in rabbits and are currently suitable for up to twenty minutes of wear.
Presently, they contain only one LED display but will eventually include hundreds of LEDs, which will form images in front of the eye, such as words, charts, photographs and other components of augmented reality.
With AR technology moving at lighting speed, it looks like once this lens technology is perfected, we will no longer need smartphones any longer, as augmented reality chips will eventually be able to be implanted into our eyes and ears, making humans the extension of their own reality.
