New Lenses Give Superhuman Vision and Immerse You Into a Virtual World!
Friday, 18. January 2008, 15:10:39
One day you could say "Hasta la vista, baby!" while zooming in on far-off scenes. Virtual displays could correct vision-impairment, drive holographic control panels and could be even a mean of navigating the Web.
A team at the University of Washington could bring to reality this SF technology, operating at microscopic scales to add to contact lens an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.
"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside. This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising." said lead researcher Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering, whose team's results have been presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems.
Virtual displays could enable drivers or pilots to see a vehicle's speed displayed onto the windshield. Playing video-game would lead you into a virtual world without motion restrictions, while Internet navigation would be made on a midair virtual display screen seen only by you.
"People may find all sorts of applications for it that we have not thought about. Our goal is to demonstrate the basic technology and make sure it works and that it's safe," Parviz added.
The prototype device comprises an electric circuit and red light-emitting diodes. The new lenses have been checked on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and caused no undesired side effects.
"Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there," the lead researcher commented.
Enlarge pictureThere are many challenges posed by the new device. Safe non-toxic materials, like the flexible organic chemicals the contact lenses are made of, are delicate and hard to handle. Electrical circuits contain inorganic materials, many toxic, and heat up to scorching temperatures. They are made of metal layers, several nanometers thick (this means 1/1,000 of the width of a human hair), while the diodes are 0.3mm in diameter. These electrical components were placed onto a sheet of flexible plastic.
The components were attached one to another through a microfabrication technique called self-assembly, which uses capillary forces (the same involved in water sucking by a plant's roots).
"The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer's vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens. And all the gadgetry won't obstruct a person's view. There is a large area outside of the transparent part of the eye that we can use for placing instrumentation. Future improvements will add wireless communication to and from the lens. The researchers hope to power the whole system using a combination of radio-frequency power and solar cells placed on the lens. A full-fledged display won't be available for a while, but a version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational fairly quickly," Parviz concluded.
A team at the University of Washington could bring to reality this SF technology, operating at microscopic scales to add to contact lens an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.
"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside. This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising." said lead researcher Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering, whose team's results have been presented at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems.
Virtual displays could enable drivers or pilots to see a vehicle's speed displayed onto the windshield. Playing video-game would lead you into a virtual world without motion restrictions, while Internet navigation would be made on a midair virtual display screen seen only by you.
"People may find all sorts of applications for it that we have not thought about. Our goal is to demonstrate the basic technology and make sure it works and that it's safe," Parviz added.
The prototype device comprises an electric circuit and red light-emitting diodes. The new lenses have been checked on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and caused no undesired side effects.
"Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there," the lead researcher commented.
Enlarge pictureThere are many challenges posed by the new device. Safe non-toxic materials, like the flexible organic chemicals the contact lenses are made of, are delicate and hard to handle. Electrical circuits contain inorganic materials, many toxic, and heat up to scorching temperatures. They are made of metal layers, several nanometers thick (this means 1/1,000 of the width of a human hair), while the diodes are 0.3mm in diameter. These electrical components were placed onto a sheet of flexible plastic.
The components were attached one to another through a microfabrication technique called self-assembly, which uses capillary forces (the same involved in water sucking by a plant's roots).
"The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer's vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens. And all the gadgetry won't obstruct a person's view. There is a large area outside of the transparent part of the eye that we can use for placing instrumentation. Future improvements will add wireless communication to and from the lens. The researchers hope to power the whole system using a combination of radio-frequency power and solar cells placed on the lens. A full-fledged display won't be available for a while, but a version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational fairly quickly," Parviz concluded.
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