Remember the thrilling scene from Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol where Jeremy Renner’s character had a digital document scanner in his contact lenses?
What went through your mind when you saw that cool gadget? Did you want it bad? Because if you did—or if you still do—you’re in luck.
According to Mashable and Sam Mobile, Samsung is officially working on their smart contact lenses, and it’s equipped with a handful of cool features that will have you champing at the bit.
The best part? It can be controlled by blinking.
How It Works
The smart contact lenses works exactly the same way as the ones in the movie. The display captures and projects the image directly into the wearer’s eyes, while the antennas transmit it to an external device (e.g. a smartphone) for processing.
Samsung is keeping the news about their latest venture quiet. The official report shows that the South Korean company applied for the patent back in 2014, but the public hasn’t heard any major announcement from them—until now.
Smart Glasses VS Smart Contact Lenses
As stated by Sam Mobile, the main reason for building the smart contact lenses is the restricted image quality caused by smart glasses. If you haven’t heard, there was a new study back on November 2014 about how wearing the Google Glass could take a toll on our vision.
The report states that there’s a strong possibility the bulky prescription frames of the Google Glass could cause blind spots. Even a mundane task like driving or walking can be fatal.
During an interview with CBS News, Dr. Tsontcho Ianchulev, a clinical associate professor, said, “I almost got into a car accident when I was driving with [the Google Glass]. And the device was even turned off at the time. So, that really alerted me to how much my peripheral vision seemed to be blocked by the frame.”
With smart contact lenses, we get to create an unrestrained augmented reality experience that’s one step ahead of the smart glasses.
The Future Is Here
It looks like Samsung is gearing up for a serious competition with Google. Back on January 2014, Google announced their smart contact lenses initiative that aims to help people with diabetes by measuring their glucose levels in the tear fluids of their eyes.
It’s unclear whether Samsung’s new scheme will be as impactful as Google Contact Lens (or if they’re really moving ahead with the plan), but one thing is certain, these variations keep getting better every time, and we millennials sure are a lucky bunch to witness it.
Also read: Samsung Is Launching Its Own Social Network Called “Waffle”, And I Think It’s A Bad Idea
Feature image credit: Tech-lightenment