14 DAY TRIAL // The future is now. Major tech giants are rushing towards implementing technological advancements and aim to integrate them into the human body. Sony has recently patented a contact lens that supports a miniature integrated module.
It seems that Sony intends to bring technology closer to its users, the closest it can get. They’ve recently patented a contact lens that will be configured and placed on an eyeball to capture images of any given subject. Images captured with the contact lens can be transferred to a smartphone or other connected devices.
The patent document posted on Free Patens Online states that the camera sensor would be triggered by the eyelid aperture, with the option to control zoom using eyelid movement. The sensor will measure the pressure of eyelids, and it will have components for counteracting image blur caused by the eyelid’s motion.
Users won’t have to stare at objects in order to capture images, as the patent states that the contact lens will be capable of simultaneously capturing images of subjects existing in right and left gaze directions. It will even take into consideration the conscious and unconscious blinking interval to intelligently determine when the user wants to capture an image.
Google took it a step further with intra-ocular device
The contact lens will be able to record eyelid closure information or tilt information detected at the time of capturing images, or even video. It will also come with components that allow for viewing images or even deleting or adjusting the display direction of a frame that is captured in the tilted state.
Sony isn’t the first to tackle this idea, as a while ago Google also patented an intra-ocular device but for different purposes. The patent was filed on October 24, 2014, and posted on the US Patent and Trademark Office website. It describes how the device would replace the eye’s natural lens with an artificially intelligent one, in order to correct the accommodation reflex, experienced in some medical conditions.
Google is only one step away from taking the Glass idea a bit further and integrating virtual reality inside the eyeball, by using either the intra-ocular device or contact lens, as Sony might. The whole concept seems a bit out of a sci-fi movie, and it remains to be seen if people would adhere to such a level of intrusion for the sake of technology advancement.
