The Future of Contact Lenses – Part 2
Similar to the contact lens with at television screen in it, a variety of University of Washington developers are currently working on a contact lens that would allow interaction with a variety of different devices.
The development began after Babak Parviz, an expert in the field of electrical engineering, began to think about revolutionising the contact lens concept. Until recently, contact lenses were used primarily for correcting vision and it has only been the last few years that has seen coloured contact lenses become popular and worn for non-medical reasons. However, this section of the contact lens market is minimal, with medical contact lenses dominating overall. Parviz wondered whether it was possible to develop a contact lens that instead being manufactured to correct vision was created to enhance the wearer’s experience.
The ideas may seem a little farfetched at first – Parviz believes that contact lenses will eventually replace the need for most handheld devices – but when listening and understanding his ideas and theories, they seem completely plausible.
For example, one of Parviz’s ideas is to create a contact lens that will allow the wearer to be fully submerged in a gaming environment. Playing the latest computer games on a High Definition television seems immense – currently. But what would they seem like if there were no surroundings, as if the gamer was sat 2 inches from the television screen, but everything was in crystal clear focus?
Of course, Parviz’s developments are someway off being marketed yet, if not purely for the fact that our technology isn’t at the same level as his ideas. However, the wheels are in motion and it may be sooner than most would think that we are all wearing electronic contact lenses.