I Spy Augmented Reality With My Little Eye

For the biomod geeks, Wired has a nifty article on contact-lens based augmented reality (AR)—basically, a digital heads-up display that you wear on your eye:

Forget about 20/20. "Perfect" vision could be redefined by gadgets that give you the eyes of a cyborg.

The tech industry calls the digital enrichment of the physical world "augmented reality." Such technology is already appearing in smartphones and toys, and enthusiasts dream of a pair of glasses we could don to enhance our everyday perception. But why stop there?

Scientists, eye surgeons, professors and students at the University of Washington have been developing a contact lens containing one built-in LED, powered wirelessly with radio frequency waves.

The article says devices like this might be used to give individuals real-time readouts of their vital stats, but personally, I'm hoping for Predator-vision. In the meantime, though, I'll settle for an AR zombie game on my iPhone.

Read Ron Bailey on our transhumanist future here and here. 

Comments

[Pro Libertate]

I saw something about this on the PopSci TV show. I suppose we're heading this way, though the way it will function (and look) is anyone's guess. It seems a little busy and mind-numbing the way it appears right now, but who knows?

[Rich]

We ain't seen nothin' yet.

"Excuse me," I said. "I thought you were a trout stream." -- Richard Brautigan

[coarsetad]

Hmmm..... powered wirelessly by radio waves.
Sounds cancery to me.

[Pro Libertate]

My first thought on hearing about this was how freaked out people would be by the idea of electronics sitting on their eyes. There's enough concern about what cellphones may or may not do to you. Whether there would be any actual danger is another question, of course.

I saw skip the contact lens and go straight into the brain.

[SugarFree]

The me that you know is now made up of wires
and even when I'm right with you I'm so far away

[roy]

yeah!

Vernor Vinge "Rainbow's end" by 2020...

[Hugh Akston]

I like it. It will be a beautiful day when we can bump into people on the streets who are running around playing a game projected on their glasses/contacts and not seeing the real reality.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have an odd craving for Skittles?

[FrBunny]

SF, your poetry is transcendent today.

Did I miss the declaration of a theme day?

[thew83]

SF is NIN.

[thew83]

LQTM, that should read "SF is quoting NIN."

[SugarFree]

HoneyBunny,

"You're lucky to even know me,
You're lucky to be alive.
You're lucky to be drinking here for free,
'cause I'm a sucker for your lucky, pretty eyes."

[Chris Grayson - Minister of Pr]

I love it. Even Reason is jumping on the Augmented Reality bandwagon.

Be the Robot.

[FrBunny]

[holds up lighter, sways to and fro]

[Michael]

As you shove your way through the crowd in a baseball stadium, the lenses of your digital glasses display the names, hometowns and favorite hobbies of the strangers surrounding you.

Wearers are strongly advised to remove the lenses prior to using the men's room at the Amtrak station.

[T]

Gotta give points to anybody quoting Liz Phair, SF.

[anonymous]

Sweet, maybe it can work with a portable camera to scan faces and run it through a database to constantly stream names and flag people with worrisome criminal backgrounds as red, people that you ought to know as green, etc. Probably can process body language to alert you to danger as well.

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