An augmented reality system which projects a heads-up display onto contact lenses
Though most of the attention surrounding the race to commercialize connected eyewear has focused on Google Glass, a lesser known player has been quietly toiling away. At CES this week, Washington-based company Innovega will be showcasing its first fully-functioning prototypes of iOptik, an augmented reality system which projects a heads-up display onto contact lenses.
We first learned of Innovega‘s vision for augmented reality back in 2012 when the company received a contract from DARPA to develop the iOptik prototype for the battlefield. Though it was clear that the technology could serve many uses outside of the military, the company’s progress in gearing it towards mainstream applications has caught our attention once again.
Before we get too excited, the iOptik system does not offer a solution for potential stigma attached to the less-than-discreet Google Glass, as it too requires a pair of glasses to function. Acting as a micro-display, the glasses project a picture onto the contact lens, which works as a filter to separate the real-world from the digital environment and then interlaces them into the one image.
According to the company, the technology enables users to focus on objects right in front of their eyes and in the distance simultaneously, offering an alternative solution to traditional near-eye displays which create the illusion of an object in the distance so as not to hinder regular vision.
Embedded in the contact lenses are micro-components that enable the user to focus on near-eye images. Light projected by the display (glasses) passes through the center of the pupil and then works with the eye’s regular optics to focus the display on the retina, while light from the real-life environment reaches the retina via an outer filter. This creates two separate images on the retina which are then superimposed to create one integrated image, or augmented reality.
The Latest on: Augmented reality contact lens
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The Latest on: Augmented reality contact lens
- Augmented 2030: the Apps, Headsets, and Lenses Getting Us Thereon September 13, 2019 at 7:04 am
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- Innovega Provides Experimental Proof of Augmented and Virtual Reality Eyestrain Management Technologyon September 11, 2019 at 5:51 am
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- What if You Had a Reality-Augmenting Lens Right In Your Eye?on August 31, 2019 at 5:00 pm
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- Samsung appears to be exploring the possibility of smart contact lenseson August 1, 2019 at 4:52 am
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- Samsung wins Patent for Augmented Reality Contact Lenseson July 29, 2019 at 4:45 pm
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a granted patent for Samsung earlier this month for Augmented Reality contact lenses. To get around Google's awkward Glass product that was receiving ...
- Innovega Gains Key Institutional Review Board (IRB) Approval for On-Eye Testing of iOptik® Contact Lens for Augmented and Virtual Realityon July 25, 2019 at 5:46 am
The Company received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval of a protocol for single exposure of the iOptik® contact lens and prototype display eyewear simultaneously for up to six hours, allowing ...
- eMacula Augmented Reality for Vision Impaired: Interview with Steve Willey, CEO of Innovegaon June 19, 2019 at 11:09 am
the same system of smart contact lenses and display glasses could be used to deliver digital media directly to the wearer (virtual reality), or to allow the wearer to simultaneously view their ...
- Augmented and Virtual Reality Contact Lens Market with Healthy CAGR in Forecast Period 2019 to 2025on May 3, 2019 at 1:58 am
May 03, 2019 (Global QYResearch via COMTEX) -- The new research from Global QYResearch on Global Augmented and Virtual Reality Contact Lens Market Report 2019 intends to offer target audience with the ...
- DARPA: This Smart Contact Lens Could Give Soldiers Superpowerson April 30, 2019 at 10:18 am
French engineering school IMT Atlantique revealed what it calls “the first stand-alone contact lens with a flexible micro battery” earlier this month. The biggest challenge that IMT Atlantique ...
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