A patent for an eye device is described as a lens replacement camera plus a retina stimulator to send signals to the brain.
For most of us, the eye we have is good enough, but it is not as good as it could be. The lens is a simple lens with no color correction, no distortion correction, and as we age, it becomes less able to focus over a wide area.
For those of us with cataracts – bad lens – it is even more important to improve the eye. I’ve had one lens replaced by a plastic lens due to a cataract. The other eye is showing signs of the same problem but is still good. The main problem with a plastic lens is that it will no longer change focus, so it is fixed at some distance and you need to have bi-focal glasses to view a wide range of distances.
The patent above uses a two part device. A camera in the lens and a retina device to take the signals from the camera and interface with the optic nerve. That last part is difficult and unneeded.
Replace the lens with a plastic camera, but instead of sending signals to a retina device, just shoot laser beams from the back of the camera to the existing retina and write the image on that surface at high resolution and without distortion.
This allows the full implant operation to be done as we do cataracts today. Plus you get super resolution because the lasers can write a better image on the retina than the human lens can produce.
Hi, I saw this article today from Science Daily and it reminded me of an idea I’m using in a novel.
Contact lens with electronics built in.
The idea is that the cell phone has developed from the old hand lifted device to the new “carry anywhere” phone of today (2008) and it will continue to develop along the following lines.
The kids of today are creating a new use as text and acronyms take over the conversations of youth.
Technology will feed that as they develop eye and ear accessories that are always connected. Both to the internet (as the medium) and to the phone descendants that will blend with our bodies.
In less than ten years the optical equivalent of contact lens plus the electronics to make them fully display capable with a resolution around 4000×3000 (see the article above) will give us total and immersive contact with the internet and all that it provides.
This means that first we will become assisted and have continuous audio and video interchange with anyone we know. More specifically, we will learn to “dial”, speak to and communicate with anyone as if they are in the room with us. In fact, it will become essential that anyone involved in commerce or fad based social groups will have to have this technology.
As the technology improves, it will become part of our body rather than an accessory we wear. Our eyeballs have plenty of room inside to hold full color laser projectors that write directly to the retina with a resolution far beyond that of any ordinary human. Remember, our eyes have a simple lens – nothing like the high quality lens even on a cheap camera.
In the limit, we will become a wired organism. We will experience each other in an entirely new medium of cyberspace that rivals the descriptions from Neuromancer. We will cease to talk to anyone beyond arms length without automatically slipping into internet connection mode. It will be seamless. And so much more intense than ordinary face to face conversation. To speak to someone beyond ten feet away, our electronic connection will take over and bring them face to face with us through the eye and ear that is internet connected.