LED mounted in a contact lens for possible virtual / augmented reality displays

Every so often, internet news aggregator sites run a story about a research group that put an LED into a contact lens, then inserted it into a rabbit's eye. I figured that I would try the same thing, but put the lens into my own eye. I accomplished this by laminating a coil of wire and an 0402 surface-mount LED between two ordinary soft contact lenses. I was hoping the lenses would stick to each other, but they did not, so I ended up fixing the edges together by pinching the plastic together with hot tweezers. This held well enough to capture a minute of video with the LED illuminated in my eye. For video purposes, I mounted the LED facing outward. An actual VR/AR display would have the LED facing inward.

I powered the LED by using a very primitive spark-gap transmitter built from a mechanical relay to send RF energy into a larger coil held near my eye. The large coil coupled the energy into the contact lens coil and pulsed the LED.

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/11/single-pixel-contact-lens-display.html

http://www.cs.uic.edu/~kenyon/Papers/Soft%20Contact%20Search%20Coil.Vision%20...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• LED
• contact
• lens
• Light-emitting Diode
• display
• future
• VR
• AR
• virtual
• reality
• augmented

[garrett707]

Yes Yes I know some of these words.

[TheRoomy]

What I would worry about with a contact lens display that wirelessly displays a signal from a device on your person and would display the image would be people who created "hacking" devices used for these lens displays and would tell them to display a blinding image into the person's eye. I'd be afraid of seeing an image put there by someone with malicious intent, especially when the lens image would still show, even if you closed your eyes. If it was bright enough, it could damage the eye.

[DarkNemesis25]

inducter coil around a pair of lensless glasses?

and what about running a current through the lens coil just strong enough to heat it up and just barely melt the surface of the contact lens adhering it to the coil

[Spoif]

Rather you than me.

[andreirocks1992]

How about.. .instead of an additional optic element... use a LASER DIODE to make an array!?!?

Is it a good idea?

[embraceyourinnerdino]

That looks like it hurts! D=

But this is awesome.

It would be great for the movie "The Host" coming out soon.

[utubesqueeze]

@TheRoomy it would be easy to make an electronic device that shuts down or fries its circuits if too much electrical power is received. There is even less risk if a non-laser (coherent light) source is used.

So, contacts being hacked to cause physical damage to the eye are sci-fi UNLESS someone was able to successfully and invisibly tamper with the device itself. Just like letting physical access to a computer to a hacker, at that point you're completely screwed anyway. :)

[abstractsnipe36]

@TheRoomy you would just shut it off or take away the power source it cant stay lit without power.

[SebiesSSS]

@garrett707 i hope the best for u ;)

[gck86]

awesome ,i really like this.

[theboo222]

I'm not sure if anyone answered your question about gluing the contact lenses, but there is an adhesive called "Norland Optical Adhesive 61 (NOA61)" used for lenses and flashlight that might work here. It is clear and colorless when dry. It's a liquid photopolymer that will cure when exposed to ultraviolet light. You could work with it aligning the lenses, and then use a UV light, or the sun to quickly set it.