Bionic contact lenses are being developed to provide a virtual display that could have a variety of uses from assisting the visually impaired to the video game industry. The device will have the form of a conventional contact lens

Contact lens

A contact lens, or simply contact, is a lens placed on the eye. They are considered medical devices and can be worn to correct vision, for cosmetic or therapeutic reasons. In 2004, it was estimated that 125 million people use contact lenses worldwide, including 28 to 38 million in the United...

 with added bionics

Bionics

Bionics is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.The word bionic was coined by Jack E...

 technology. The lens will eventually have functional electronic circuits and infrared lights to create a virtual display.

Babak Parviz, a University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

 assistant professor of electrical engineering is quoted as saying "Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside.”

Manufacture

The lenses require organic

Organic matter

Organic matter is matter that has come from a once-living organism; is capable of decay, or the product of decay; or is composed of organic compounds...

 materials that are biologically safe and also use inorganic material for the electronic circuits. The electronic circuits are built from a layer of metal a few nanometre

Nanometre

A nanometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one billionth of a metre. The name combines the SI prefix nano- with the parent unit name metre .The nanometre is often used to express dimensions on the atomic scale: the diameter...

s thick. The light-emitting diodes are one third of a millimetre across. A grey powder is sprinkled onto the lens. Then a technique called microfabrication

Microfabrication

Microfabrication is the term that describes processes of fabrication of miniature structures, of micrometre sizes and smaller. Historically the earliest microfabrication processes were used for integrated circuit fabrication, also known as "semiconductor manufacturing" or "semiconductor device...

 or 'self-assembly

Self-assembly

Self-assembly is a term used to describe processes in which a disordered system of pre-existing components forms an organized structure or pattern as a consequence of specific, local interactions among the components themselves, without external direction...

' is used to shape each tiny component. Capillary forces

Capillary action

Capillary action, or capilarity, is the ability of a liquid to flow against gravity where liquid spontanously rise in a narrow space such as between the hair of a paint-brush, in a thin tube, or in porous material such as paper or in some non-porous material such as liquified carbon fiber, or in a...

 pull the pieces into their final position.

Development

Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz who worked at Sandia National Laboratories

Sandia National Laboratories

The Sandia National Laboratories, managed and operated by the Sandia Corporation , are two major United States Department of Energy research and development national laboratories....

 in Livermore, California presented the results in January 2008 at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems

Microelectromechanical systems

Microelectromechanical systems is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems and nanotechnology...

 (or microbotics

Microbotics

Microbotics is the field of miniature robotics, in particular mobile robots with characteristic dimensions less than 1 mm...

) in Tucson, Arizona. The lens is expected to have more electronics and capabilities on the areas where the eye does not see. Wireless communication, radio frequency power transmission

Radio frequency power transmission

Radio frequency power transmission is the transmission of the output power of a transmitter to an antenna. When the antenna is not situated close to the transmitter, special transmission lines are required....

 and solar cells are expected in future developments.

The earliest record of any attempt to implant electrical circuitry into a contact lens was in the lab research of English railway engineer Eric Booth, who experimented with transistor circuitry in rigid contact lenses in the late 70s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lappa_Valley_Steam_Railway#Lappa_Valley_Steam_Railway

Prototype and testing

In 2011, scientists created and successfully tested a functioning prototype with a wireless antenna and a single-pixel display.

Previous prototypes proved that it is possible to create a biologically safe electronic lens that does not obstruct a person’s view. Engineers have tested the finished lenses on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no problems.

See also

• Visual prosthesis
  Visual prosthesis
  For the non-functional prosthesis or glass eye see Ocular prosthesis and Craniofacial prosthesis.A visual prosthesis, often referred to as a bionic eye, is an experimental visual device intended to restore functional vision in those suffering from partial or total blindness...
  
  
• Augmented reality
  Augmented reality
  Augmented reality is a live, direct or indirect, view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data. It is related to a more general concept called mediated reality, in which a view of reality is...
  
  
• Heads-Up Display
• SENSIMED a Swiss start-up making contact lenses with integrated pressure sensors.