News You Can't Use: The Contact Lenses That Could Do Away With TV Screens

We're on the cusp of another major victory in the long war against stupid old bring-down reality. No, I'm not talking about some exciting new CIA funded hallucinogen, I'm talking about electronics in your eyes! It's still in the experimental use rabbits because they can't cry or make effective fists stage, but there's every reason to believe a Huxley-style nightmare world might still beat out the Orwellian one, although it's a tight race.

Contact lenses that allow the wearer to see high-definition virtual screens are to be unveiled in Las Vegas next week.

In this case I hope what happens in Vegas does, in fact, stay there.

Dubbed iOptik, the system allows the users to see projected digital information, such as driving directions and video calls.

No sitcoms, no care.

Also, how come we have "video calls" as predicted in 1950s futurist movies but the flying car technology continues to stagnate? Who even wants video calls? Here's my weary face to go with my weary voice. Yay.

The tiny 'screens', which are the invention of Washington-based group Innovega, sit directly on a users' eyeballs and work with a pair of lightweight glasses.

You mean you aren't stuffing your eyes with all kinds of crazy nonsense? I feel bad for you, son. Me, I've got glasses, tiny screens, eye buds, assorted wires, you name it.

Together, they provide an experience equivalent to watching a 240-inch television at a distance of 10 feet, according to Innovega's chief executive Steve Willey.

Or to put it into simpler terms: "Whoa, the colors. I'm freaking out!"

They can be worn on their own and only function with the iOptik software when a user looks through the company's paired glasses.

Whether they can help you keep track of the visions in your eyes or even see the light that's right before those same eyes is not specified. These are the features I'd actually want.

The system can work with smartphones and portable game devices to deliver video - or switch to a translucent 'augmented reality' view, where computer information is layered over the world we know it.

Don't worry, you can hook up all your other marginally useful Chinese gimmicks to it!

Is this some kind of allegory?

Crucially, the device can be worn while moving around in a similar way to Google Glass.

Because you're going to want to do lots "moving around" while in a electronics induced coma.

The contacts are due to be previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show and promise to provide a much more immersive experience than other head-work wearable devices.

The days of writing driving directions on the inside of a sack and then pulling it over your head and trying to drive may be over.

Microsoft and the University of Washington have also been working on similar projects that seem more like a prop in movies such as Mission Impossible 4.

Yeah, that and eight inch elevator shoes.

In 2012, they created a prototype of a hard augmented reality contact lens capable of receiving radio signals and transmitting them to the brain through optical nerves.

Sadly, the appeal of watching the radio proved limited.

Full Article.

Komment Korner  

Sounds excellent! So we will be able to drive a vehicle and concentrate on a screen that is projected on our eyes! Very safe!

Anybody remember "Max Headroom?" Blipverts!

Meet George Jetson.

And there's idiots who will pay for this!

Shill Section

Aaron Zehner is the author of "Posts from the Underground," now available in paperback and e-book.

His first novel The Foolchild Invention is also available in paperback and e-book format. Read free excerpts here and here.