Google is Making Contact Lenses With Mini Cameras Embedded Inside
Remember when you were looking forward to Joey because you knew you were going to miss Friends so darn much? And then it sucked? Well, we have a spin-off that looks a LOT better than the original. Back in January, we wrote about Google’s Smart Contact Lens project — you could say we got a little too excited about it, but can you ever get too jazzed about the intersection of health + tech?! This week there are updates that detail a vision of the future that we are incredibly down with.
The early reports about Google’s smart contact lenses included a tiny wireless chip and a miniaturized glucose sensor that would measure glucose levels from your tears. This was a promising step in wearable tech in the health field, but we also assumed “smart contact lenses” could someday replace Google Glass. Looks like that day might be sooner than expected.
Google just filed a patent for a contact lens that would feature built-in microcameras. The wearer will control the camera with unique blinking patterns, a system probably a little more sophisticated than one blink = yes, two = no, and hopefully smart enough to detect the difference between a commanding blink and one that’s trying to reposition a dry lens after a couple hours of computer time. According to Patent Bolt’s report, these smart lenses will work just like your normal soft contacts do. A thin camera component can be embedded on or within them without affecting thickness, they will move with your eyes and won’t obstruct your view.
These microcameras will capture image data for whatever it is you are viewing. It can take video or photos on the lenses or send information to remote devices, like your smartphone, home gadgets and whatever else might be hooked up to the Internet of Things in your life. The lenses could replace another piece of bulky headware you may have been considering purchasing in the next few years — they will be able to detect motion and even recognize faces as well.
Would you wear smart contact lenses? What functions would you want them to have?
(h/t: Patent Bolt)