Forget second-rate spy films, this is the real deal

Dec 23, 2011 09:19 GMT  ·  By

Okay, maybe this isn't really what spy films sometimes show in terms of unreal gadgets, but the video made by YouTube user bkraz333 will still appeal to people who dream about bionic eyes and other ways of marrying human eyesight with high-tech vision.

We actually talked about the idea of LED contact lenses back in November, when they were even tested on rabbits.

This, though, is a home-made contact lens that someone just decided to put together and even publish the instructions for.

Sure the LED is mounted facing-forward (real VR/AR display needs the opposite) but the fact remains that it works.

A laminated coil of wire and an 0402 surface-mount LED were placed between two ordinary, soft contact lenses.

The edges of the lenses were then pinched together with hot tweezers, otherwise they wouldn't have stuck to one another.

Furthermore, a spark-gap transmitter, made of a mechanical relay, sent energy to a large coil near the eye, for powering the LED.

We won't jump at the chance to have so many metal wires near our eyes, but if you want to do it, check out the video above.