14 DAY TRIAL // If people are scared about Google Glass and what the device means to their privacy, just wait until they see what the Internet giant has planned – cameras embedded into contact lenses.
If you listen closely, you may just hear their screams of frustration, but no one can actually say that this isn’t at least a bit scary.
Of course, it shouldn’t really be too surprising that Google has a pending patent for such a technology, especially after it announced that it had managed to develop contact lenses for diabetics, which would tell those suffering from this illness just how their sugar levels were. This would, of course, enable them to skip the annoying finger prick required to take a fast blood test.
This time around, instead of a sensor measuring the sugar levels, Google has come up with a way to embed small cameras inside the contact lenses.
The tiny camera can be aligned in a way that it helps track and generate data of an image or a scene corresponding to the gaze of the wearer. This means that as the wearer looks in another direction, the contact lens will follow the gaze shift allowing to really see what the other person is looking at.
The file indicates that the image data can be processed to detect light, colors, patterns of colors, faces, motion, or any other type of similar data.
Google’s patent indicates that there could even be more than one camera, which could all be powered wirelessly by capturing energy, or mechanically.
Before you start accusing Google of trying to create products for spies, you should know that the example given by the company indicates that blind people could use the new tech just as well. For instance, when approaching an intersection, the lenses would capture information about the environment, analyze the content quickly and inform the user if it’s safe to cross the street or if a car is approaching. This would be done, of course, via a smartphone connected to the high tech contact lenses.
The face recognition feature, however, could make this type of product of use for a lengthy list of professions, including law enforcement.
Between the tech lenses that secretly collects information, and the electronic neck tattoo that comes with a built in microphone, Google really does seem to be creating spy gadgets.