Comments on: Bionic contact lens

Bionic contact lens

caution live frogs — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:31:18 -0800

Bionic contact lens invented. That is all.

They claim it will be useful. While I think it's damn cool, how long before someone sees this and thinks "Wow, now how can I make it show you commercials when you walk by my store?"

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:37:37 -0800

No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

By: 3.2.3

3.2.3 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:39:44 -0800

No firewire either. Can't watch movies.

By: fleetmouse

fleetmouse — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:40:22 -0800

Does it go deet deet deet deet deet?

By: dismas

dismas — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:43:45 -0800

what is WRONG with you people? This is so badass.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:48:43 -0800

How long before someone figures out how to show you porn on the insides of your eyes? Not long, I'll warrant.

By: empath

empath — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:51:24 -0800

No firewire either. Can't watch movies. Floppy, though.

By: ooga_booga

ooga_booga — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:54:00 -0800

The obvious problems they haven't solved are getting power and data to the display. Right now they've only addressed the manufacturing issues of getting display technologies into a contact lens, not an insignificant problem but it's still far from OMG STEVE AUSTIN.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:55:08 -0800

Just wait until they have a 3D api. The real world will seem like the real world.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:56:54 -0800

This is a vast improvement over my monocle with crosshairs, which frequently spooks my victims.

By: Sticherbeast

Sticherbeast — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:08:37 -0800

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:11:19 -0800

Just wait until they have a 3D api. The real world will seem like the real world. NSImage *tits = [[bionicEye sharedEye] imageWithXrayOfArea:[hotRedhead bodyPartsInRect:[[hotRedhead chest] bounds]]]; (include autorelease joke here)

By: hexxed

hexxed — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:15:15 -0800

I champion any product that could, even way in the future, get rid of asshats who think their bluetooth earpiece is jewelery

By: Laen

Laen — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:17:15 -0800

Don't overclock it, or it'll burn out your eyeballs.

By: gurple

gurple — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:20:33 -0800

Our kids won't be able to believe that anyone ever lived without them.

By: gurple

gurple — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:20:44 -0800

OK, maybe grandkids.

By: nzero

nzero — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:22:14 -0800

Why, Slashdot, you've turned blue!

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:25:31 -0800

I don't see how it could be in focus. Even if it can display images, wouldn't they be totally blurry? I have a significant scratch on one of my corneas. I can't tell you which, because it doesn't affect my vision in the slightest and I don't remember. Optometrists comment on it every time I go in for glasses, but I can't see any indication of it myself. This display would be at the same focal range, which should make it useless.

By: Parannoyed

Parannoyed — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:26:56 -0800

(Future office scene) Boss: Johnson! Are you paying attention to the presentation? Johnson: No, sorry sir. I can't see anything through all the porn pop-up ads I'm getting at the moment.

By: thecaddy

thecaddy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:27:19 -0800

OK, maybe grandkids. Damn you kids! Stop playing your FPS on my RTS lawn!

By: Frasermoo

Frasermoo — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:27:58 -0800

I champion any product that could, even way in the future, get rid of asshats who think their bluetooth earpiece is jewelery aint that the truth. god forbid you're not hands free while shopping for baked beans.

By: TechnoLustLuddite

TechnoLustLuddite — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:29:18 -0800

awesome. Can i get a pair with Billboard AdBlocker Plus installed?

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:30:12 -0800

There you go again. You should have left it at "I don't see how." My optometrist when I was a kid said that roughly speaking (digging through memory; optometrists correct me if I'm remembering incorrectly) your eyes will generally correct for minor scratches. To that I would add that the actual size & location of the scratch, and how it occludes or refracts light, would probably also have an effect on whether or not it's visible. But that's just a guess. More to the point, knowing how the eye focuses would probably mean that the image fed to the lens is highly distorted in some way, to allow for proper focus.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:31:01 -0800

This is the cover of a bad science fiction novel.

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:32:08 -0800

No firewire either. Can't watch movies. You can stick the firewire up your ass if you want to watch a movie.

By: 0xFCAF

0xFCAF — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:32:13 -0800

SCDB, I feel the same way about my camera's viewfinder. How could something that's only half a cm away from my eye ever present a focused image?

By: dirtynumbangelboy

dirtynumbangelboy — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:33:07 -0800

Aw, poopy. 0xFCAF deflated SCDB's pomposity better than I did. Kudos, 0xFCAF, kudos.

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:33:19 -0800

This is the cover of a bad science fiction novel. Whatever pal. I would NOT F*CK with that rabbit.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:35:36 -0800

How could something that's only half a cm away from my eye ever present a focused image? It has lenses which compensate. But if a contact lense did that, which would be tough, then you'd see the display but you wouldn't see anything else.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:36:13 -0800

Yeah, sure - I rolled my eyes at first, too. Then my contacts got stuck behind my eye, sucked back into my sinus cavity, and short-circited my cochlear implants. Now I'm a synesthetic cyborg techno god! I can see the music! I can see the music! I can hear the sunset weeping! I have seen the ghost in the machine, and it is... funktastic!

By: nebulawindphone

nebulawindphone — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:36:34 -0800

That is all. [more inside] Now wait a minute.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:53:44 -0800

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 15:58:40 -0800

Haven't we already figured out how to make electrically conductive and light emitting plastic (OLEDs) that can be printed right onto transparent sheets already? It sounds like what they've accomplished is putting metal circuits and 'traditional' LEDs on a piece of plastic in the shape of a contact, but I don't think what they accomplished couldn't have been done with all plastic technology, it's just that why bother? Their display is just 8x8 pixels, and it would be totally blurry and out of focus if you tried to look through it. So why would anyone bother making one? Anyway, maybe this is an impressive breakthrough in self-assembly, but I don't think the 'bionic eyes' aspect of this is all that impressive.

By: jjj606

jjj606 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:01:15 -0800

How could something that's only half a cm away from my eye ever present a focused image? It has lenses which compensate. But if a contact lense did that, which would be tough, then you'd see the display but you wouldn't see anything else. Hold a paper clip up half a cm front of your eye. It's just a blur. The camera viewfinder example is wrong, the eye is looking through the viewfinder at a more distant image. See the lower diagram here. THat's like saying your eyeglasses are right in front of your eye and you can see the image through them. Since these contacts have LED lights, it could be used to superimpose a fuzzy blob of light in your field of vision. That's about all.

By: 0xFCAF

0xFCAF — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:13:36 -0800

There's nothing magic about subject distance. You can replicate the same apparent focal distance by just casting the light rays in the right direction. We have the technology.

By: SmileyChewtrain

SmileyChewtrain — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:23:54 -0800

Can i get a pair with Billboard AdBlocker Plus installed? They Live?

By: jazzido

jazzido — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:23:33 -0800

Rainbows End, anyone?

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:04:41 -0800

Think of the possibilities for the hearing impaired. Even a 4 bit device would allow you to signal 16 alert states (without getting fancy with flashing) such as door bell, telephone, oven timer, dog barking, sirens, etc.

By: spaceman_spiff

spaceman_spiff — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:00:56 -0800

I won't be impressed until I can put it on my retina. *Snorts derisively, reaches up to fiddle with his cochlear implant.*

By: Pater Aletheias

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:17:38 -0800

Will a bionic lens help with my confusion when I read "That is all. [More inside.]"?

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:29:06 -0800

You can replicate the same apparent focal distance by just casting the light rays in the right direction. We have the technology. No. We have the theory. We don't have the technology yet. That's why we don't have holographic 3D displays yet.

By: humannaire

humannaire — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:10:39 -0800

Happy, I am, to be living here, in the future.

By: ancientgower

ancientgower — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:30:38 -0800

re: pop-up ads fed to you by merchants you walk past If you haven't read Feed, by M. T. Anderson, you should.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 06:43:56 -0800

But will using it ultimately result in being executed by a neo-Confucian justice system?

By: effugas

effugas — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 15:30:10 -0800

Yes, focal distance is very important. That's why you project laser light directly onto the retina, as per Microvision. Eliminates the problem entirely.