Single-pixel contact lens checked on rabbits

^{Contact lens concept: 1 - microcircuit with LEDs, 2 - power receiver and control module, 3 - antenna, 4 - data bus, 5 - transparent polymer, 6 - projection of the image from LEDs to the retina}

The day is getting closer that we will be able to read mail and watch movies with our eyes closed. A group of scientists from the United States and Finland conducted successful tests on rabbits of the world's first contact lens with built-in display and radio. According to the researchers, no side effects were found in the rabbits, the vision was not affected.

Testing for mammals is one of the steps in the costly process of testing the safety of new medicines. The first version of contact lenses contains only one glowing LED pixel, but the display resolution will gradually increase, and in a couple of decades it will certainly reach the HD level.

To ensure ultra-short focal length, the lens itself is not made from a single piece of material, but consists of separate concentric rings of small thickness adjacent to each other, which in cross section have the shape of prisms of a special profile - the so-called Fresnel lens . Thus, a person can focus his gaze on near and far objects, and the display in the center of the lens always remains in focus.
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The question remains of the power supply of such devices and the data transmission interface. Scientists believe that all the necessary electronics, including a modem, antenna and controller, can be integrated into the millimeter module of the contact lens, and the power supply should be provided using a remote radio transmitter. During the tests on rabbits, a contact lens with an imprinted 5-millimeter antenna was used, which was powered from a 1.05 GHz radio transmitter attached to the rabbit's ear at a distance of 10 cm from the lens.

Lenses with HD-display should become a truly hit device, because they open the way to a variety of augmented reality applications that should radically change our lifestyle.

Single-pixel lenses can also be useful. For example, they can be used as an alarm sensor in the system for monitoring the parameters of life support - if a diabetic has reduced / increased blood sugar to a dangerous level, then he sees a signal. In addition, such displays will be used in games, for training athletes, in military affairs, as well as for giving a signal to people with hearing disabilities.

via New Scientist