Put on your leggings, put on your sneakers and go for a run. Ten kilometers today. You’re not in the gym without pulling, so you’re missing the daily treadmill. You don’t really like to wear a smart watch or Fitbit type activity bracelet. There’s no need to take care of every two-thirds baby. Not important. And it doesn’t matter because all the information you need: your route, your heart rate, your workout routines, the calories you burn, the time you run… All of this just flashes before your eyes, like data. hanging over the landscape.

Secret? None. You’re wearing a pair of smart contact lenses, technology that’s dying to retire, or at least putting augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) glasses in serious trouble;

It may sound like science fiction, but there are companies that work with the same information a smartwatch offers, only on lenses that are projected directly into our eyes. Mojo Vision has been developing contact lenses with a microLED display for a long time. no bigger than a grain of sand and sensors powered by solid state batteries. All are integrated into a prosthesis that also acts like conventional contact lenses and helps correct vision.

Opportunities… and challenges

“Combined with micro-optics and a special silicon backplate chip, the display can project brilliant text, graphics and high-definition video onto the user’s retina that can be viewed indoors, outdoors, and even with eyes closed.” MicroLed is “the world’s smallest and densest display ever created for dynamic content”: 0.5 millimeter (mm) in diameter and 1.8 micron pixel size.

One of its biggest features compared to other VR and AR glasses is a system that enables precise eye tracking. “You can provide critical information without interrupting or distracting you,” the company says. Much of his strategy is based on a concept he describes as Invisible Computing, “a computing experience in which information is available and presented only when needed,” a concept that is discreet, fast, and does not require much outside attention. User.

So in theory. But… How does it translate into practice? What apps do you have on a daily basis? Much of its rhetoric focuses on athletes, and the company itself has already announced deals with multinationals like Adidas or 18Birdies. Its purpose is for athletes training to have statistics and information about their own bodies in real time. blowing the corneawithout having to look away, look down or operate any device with your hands.

Beyond running tracks and gyms, the possibilities offered by smart lenses are as rich as AR/VR glasses, but they have a valuable plus: they are practically unnoticeable. For example, they can be first aid for a lecturer who wants to do without notes; musicians who want to see the notes and lyrics slide before their eyes; or any passenger who needs to board and appreciates looking directly at information about their services, such as the terminal or boarding gate, without having to search for screens.

Mojo isn’t the only one working on the possibilities smart contact lenses can bring. As the BBC points out, there are those who are already investigating its applications. health area.

For example, at the University of Surrey, they have developed a contact lens equipped with a photodetector, a temperature sensor, and a glucose sensor that can measure tear fluid levels. They say the prosthesis is flexible, very thin, and because the sensor is in direct contact with the eye, its measurements stand out for its precision. Other interesting applications range from diagnosing pathologies and even planning their treatment.

of course not all advantages and strengths.

Smart contact lenses present significant challenges. From the very beginning, they point to a technological challenge. How are batteries, which must be extremely small and thin, powered? What autonomy will they offer? How will they communicate? Mojo needed to design an ASIC with an ARM Core M0 processor that transmits the lens sensors and AR content to the MicroLED display. Also, CNET states that it requires a device to be worn around the neck.

And beyond the technical complications… If the use of conventional contact lenses requires the utmost attention to hygiene or avoidance of excessive use, what about a device like Mojo Vision recommends? At least in April, their lenses still hadn’t received administration approval for their use, and they were still facing tests to polish their mechanisms.

However, perhaps the greatest of its challenges is at the regulatory level and hard balance with the privacy and confidentiality of both the user and those around him. Access Now’s Daniel Leufer told the BBC: “Any inconspicuous device with a front-facing camera that allows taking photos or videos poses privacy risks to passersby.”

If it’s already a point of contention in VR/AR glasses that can activate red light while recording, what happens when there’s a lens that can go completely unnoticed? Challenges do not only cover the user environment; they affect him in a certain way. How to deal with all the information a contact lens can collect, like the contact lenses Mojo recommends, what if the device collects information about what we see and how it affects our bodies?

Pictures | Mojo Vision