When you hear the term “bionic”, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? People usually associate the word “bionic” with robots or with super-human abilities, much like the stuff you see in the movies. But what if the fiction that you have seen in the movies has now become fact? That the present has caught up to the future and is here right now.
At the University of Washington, engineers have successfully designed and manufactured soft contact lenses with imprinted electronic circuits. A more graphic explanation is something out of the Terminator movie. If you remember that scene where he’s supposed to be scanning and getting a handle on his surroundings, it’s like he has a virtual display incorporated into his eye.
From movies to real life, virtual display systems have a number of possible practical applications. Any kind of data needed for a certain function may be displayed on the lenses. Pilots or drivers may see specific vehicular information on their terminals. A more intense gaming experience may be had if the contact lenses can immerse the players in their games. Surfing the Internet may also be a possibility with the contact lenses serving as a virtual display screen.
The important thing is that the engineers were able to develop biologically safe and flexible contact lenses that are capable of functioning within a restricted medium. The breakthrough in their research involved the combination of materials that will be safe to use on the eyes and on the body (in general). In order to combine the material used for the contact lenses with the material used for the circuits required creative thinking. In the end, they were able to successfully integrate all of the components on a microscopic level.
Testing was performed on rabbits who were made to wear the contact lenses for up to 20 minutes. They didn’t experience or register any adverse effects while wearing the special contact lenses.