(Credit: Mojo Blog)
The next revolution in Augmented Reality (AR) seems to be smart contact lenses, it’s not just science fiction anymore. American startup Mojo Vision recently demonstrated, a lens integrating many technologies, including a small screen. These lenses allow the wearer to enjoy content, images and text, superimposed on the surrounding real-world environment. The very first prototype from Mojo Lens is finally operational.
The startup’s CEO, Drew Perkins, was the one who experienced the innovation first-hand. “Turns out, the future is a lot closer than most people think. In fact, the future is already here. I’ve seen it. I’ve worn it,” he wrote on the mojo blog. In this case, he served as the first tester for the very first demonstration of this new smart contact lens technology, providing access to practical, contextualised information.
Drew Perkins, the CEO of Mojo Vision, recently announced he was the first to get an “on-eye” demonstration of the company’s technology. As of now, he’s only wearing one lens at a time, and just in one-hour increments. Mojo Vision’s eventual goal is to make two lenses work as a pair, allowing the wearer to see images in 3D, similar to the way VR and AR currently work.
The Mojo lens is fully self-contained and has a Micro LED display with 14,000 pixels per inch, but it’s only 0.5mm (0.2 inches) in diameter. Still, according to Mojo, it’s the highest density display ever created for dynamic content, which it has to be when it’s literally sitting on your eye. Perkins says using the Mojo allowed him to view a live compass, as well as see blocks of text to read off like a teleprompter. It even displayed a single monochrome image of Einstein. Since there’s no interface you can touch, all navigation is controlled with eye movements.
Even though the technology is far from perfect, the company believes it is on track to developing a usable piece of technology that could eventually get FDA approval. They plan to conduct multiple clinical studies to ensure people can use the Mojo lens safely for longer periods of time. Perkins said that he believes we’re about ten years away from having these devices in our heads.
