Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens

Concept rendering of a contact lens

From the Pais Kidd science desk…  What if we could have a computer display in a contact lens? Talk about augmented reality possibilities. One of the cool thinks I like to demonstrate with my new iPhone is an astronomy program called Pocket Universe that uses the compass, GPS, and tilt/motion sensors of the phone, so I can hold it up at night and it shows me the names of starts and constellations. It does more. It is cooler than a MystiTool. It is a nice example of augmented reality (AR) with the iPhone.

If you haven’t seen this TED.com demo of the “sixth sense” invention, check it out:

Think how much better this could be if instead of projecting images on stuff, we just see it in our eye.

I get a little queasy thinking about putting a bionic contact lens in my eye, but I have to admit, this would be way cool if and when they get something like this to work. Read more about the research here.