Covert contact

Here's a shining example of multiple cutting edge technologies converging to create what could be the next
generation of high tech eye wear.

Forget Google Glass - how about all seeing contact lenses?

We all know that an inherent weakness of the current generation screens on our smartphones and tablets is that they are fragile, inflexible and prone to damage.

The fragility comes primarily from needing to use inflexible glass and plastic to protect the conductive indium tin oxide layer.

South Korean scientists have substituted a flexible, transparent layer of atom-thick graphene to replace the indium and have embedded nanowires to carry the electric pulses within a soft contact lens.

An LED screen within a contact lens

This design provides the potential to take photographs, video and to receive interactive feeds onto an inorganic LED screen embedded within the lens.

If people are worried about the privacy invasion possible from the much more obvious Google Glass then they should be positively terrified of the opportunities for covert surveillance and privacy abuse if this technology is introduced.

The tracking aspects of this technology work both ways.  The software constantly tracks the wearer - this sounds a lot like that wonderful but ominous show, Person of Interest.  You are being watched !

You are being watched

On the positive side, such a device could be incredibly useful, replacing the need for a user to carry a separate screen in their hand.

Such advances would not be possible if it wasn't for the highly innovative approach that scientists and manufacturers are taking to marrying up the advantages of so many cutting edge technologies.

Reflection 

Although just a few years ago this device would have been confined to the realm of  science fiction, it's now a reality.  This is a shining example of how fast development is moving in different but connected fields.  We are seeing so many strands converging to make possible a whole new technology.  Consider what has gone into this device:

• Nanotechnology has given us the abillity to create electronic circuits so tiny they can easily fit into a small part of contact lens
• Radical new materials such as graphene are being harnessed to provide amazing capabilities - graphene is the strongest material we have on our planet, it's incredibly flexible, it's totally transparent, it weighs next to nothing yet it can be equipped with an intricate network of electrodes to provide the conductive layer of this device
• Advances in screen displays have given us a tiny inorganic LED screen that fits within the lens
• Wireless communications and the availability of a world wide internet infrastructure means that such technology can be deployed across the globe
• The power of this technology is that we can connect this tiny camera/transmitter/receiver to computers and enormous power - there really is no limit to what we could do with the technology.

Most of all though, beyond the technological abilities demonstrated here, there is the human desire to innovate, to create such capability and to use it.  That is truly inspiring.

More on tracking technology

Blink of an eye (NZ Herald)

Transparent flexible electrodes demonstrated by Korean researchers (Asia Research News)

More bans for Google Glass functionality (Guardian UK)