The researchers at the University of Washington have created a prototype of a bionic contact lens.  It is said that the flexible plastic lens is a platform for applications like “the Internet on a virtual screen, immersing gamers in virtual worlds and monitoring patients’ medical conditions.”  The group working on the prototype also equipped it with an antenna, tiny metal wires for an electronic circuit and red light-emitting diodes onto the lens surface.

Initially when I saw this, I thought it was a little silly, now that I have read a little more about it I believe that this will pave the way to technologies seen in movies.  You know those cool virtual floater screens in Minority Report; imagine riding the bus or being in a taxi reading the news on a screen only seen by you.  Now that has its appeals and it does not.  I am sure that if I saw someone poking around the air like Tom Cruise, I would think that they were barkin’ mad.  But who knows, in 10 years that could be completely normal.

At the moment they are testing the lenses on rabbits, but, “contact-wearing rabbits won’t be able to tell researchers when they’ve hit upon the right angle to produce a crisp image.” 

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