Looking at world with a smart lens

We are living in a smart world, all tools/products of daily use have been influenced by technology in some way or another, ranging from internet enabled household items to smart cars. The advent of IoT has revolutionized the products of the mechanical age in such a way that automation has reduced human efforts and man house significantly. The evolution of products in the digital age has been monumental as nearly all producers are moving towards automation and sustainable products.
Just like most of the spy movies one used to watch, we often used to see an actor trying to leak some documents/photos without anyone noticing by wearing a smart eye lens which in turn was used to send the data to the spy’s team mates, all of us used to find this very fascinating but always thought that it would takes long time for such a product to exist in reality as it was really far fetched. This is one of those moments in which real technology seems to come from a science fiction movie. The CEO of Mojo Vision actually developed a smart lens and used it for nearly an hour seeing digital content in front of him superimposed to reality, and having no safety issues. It is a huge milestone for this company after 7 years of hard work, and proof that smart contact lenses may become a reality much earlier than we thought.

What is a Smart Lens ?

A smart lens is essentially a lens which is enabled by the internet and various other cutting edge technologies in order to allow the user to see digital content right in front of him. The lens functions on the basics of Augmented reality and Virtual reality and allows the user to access and use content over the internet while maintaining a normal vision of his/her surroundings. This product is definitely the next landmark in the digital age and will be widely used once it is made affordable & accessible for all, products like this will actually allow the user to view and access the internet and basic functions of a mobile with only a lens and with actually using a mobile phone. This gadget is the prototype version and the company intends to start sales for the mass population in the next 6-8 years. This gadget will be one of the widely used gadgets in the future as assured by the company CEO.

The lens works on an array of sensors and complex coding structure but yet the concept of miniaturizing has been successful for the inventors.

The various components of the smart contact lens are as follows –

• A microdisplay to let the user see the augmentations. It is an impressive 14,000 pixel-per-inch MicroLED display. Measuring less than 0.5mm in diameter with a pixel-pitch of 1.8 microns, it is the world’s smallest and densest display ever created for dynamic content;
• An image sensor for seeing the surroundings and processing them through computer vision (e.g. edge detection);
• Eye-tracking sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer);
• A battery system;
• A 5Ghz radio communication antenna to make the lens communicate with an external unit;
• An ARM0 processor, that acts as a “traffic cop” for the data.

The lens doesn’t contain the processing unit inside, but it communicates via radio waves with an external computational module. The lens caused nearly no discomfort on the eye, the testing of the product was initially focused towards the effect of the lens on the human eye and it was found to be minimal. The testing and setting up of the lens is a tedious and long process but the final outcome was nothing short of a miracle. Mojo Visions intends to launch the lens for public use by 2030 as currently they have just worked out the prototype. This technology will be influential in nearly all sectors of the industries and will prove to be viable tools for the future. The invention of such technologically advanced gadgets will result in a wholesome experience of the new metaverse and the massive changes it is going to bring in our daily lives.

Author – Mr. Abhishek Singh, Research Associate, CyberPeace Foundation