Reporting by XinZhiyuan
Editor: Yuan Xie
At the International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2022, InWith announced that it had successfully developed the world's first soft AR contact lens. Will this be the first step in "moving the eye into the metaverse"?
The idea of using smart contact lenses to directly release augmented reality images directly on the human eye is not uncommon in movies and television.
For example, in the very popular "Black Mirror".
There are also remakes of Robocop, which are very low-profile.
The world's first AR contact lens, a shortcut to the metacosm?
But now there are a lot of companies that are trying to achieve this scenario. At CES 2022, for example, InWith announced that they had successfully developed the world's first soft contact lens with augmented reality capabilities.
InWith is a company specializing in ophthalmology and MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) technologies. InWith said that the soft electronic contact lenses they designed for the masses may be the ultimate way to observe the future metaverse, and the users wearing them can transition from the real world to a variety of virtual reality, augmented reality, and expanded reality metaverse worlds at will.
In The InWith announcement, they said that their research team pioneered the key technology of integrating solid components and circuits into hydrogel materials, enabling them to integrate related augmented reality (AR) display modules into the mainstream contact lens materials in the market.
The company says the technology could allow developers to apply AR display chips to any soft hydrogel contact lens. The first applications will be "tunable vision" in which spectacle lenses are manipulated by mobile devices such as smartphones, and "enhanced vision" that interacts with mobile devices such as smartphones.
In an interview with CNET, the company's CEO Mike Hayes said, "These glasses will work with your smartphone or other external devices to show you information about the world around you in real time."
For example, in a navigation scenario, the system can transmit navigation information from the smartphone's mapping software to contact lenses, "Can you see something, such as, what is the speed limit for this road?" In which direction am I going? Where is the next exit? How many more miles are there?"
According to InWith's zi (chui), this is the most advanced platform for the computerized application of soft contact lenses, and they are the only company that has publicly demonstrated this capability.
They also published a summary of some lense-related patents, such as:
Capture kinetic energy from blinking human eyes to power contact lenses;
Limit the space inside hydrogel devices , such as contacts , to embed computer circuits during the manufacturing process;
A smart glasses case that charges the lenses with a liquid medium in the glasses case when the user removes the lenses for storage.
CEO Mike Hayes added (chui) Ming (xu), also said that the smart focus function of this lens can help both presbyopia and myopia, and everyone does not have to wear multifocus glasses.
However, probably because it did not get a license, InWith showed samples of the product, but did not carefully demonstrate the specific technology. InWith plans to obtain a breakthrough device license from the FDA in 2022, so that the related contact lens products will be brought to market in the near future.
Consumer reaction: some likes and some disparagements
The response from potential consumers is very diverse.
In the positive response, some people sang "Waited for a long time and finally waited until today, dreamed for a long time to finally realize the dream", saying that even if it is not shipped, they are willing to book.
Some people say that if this product can be as easy to navigate as a smartphone and can cure their eyesight, they will definitely buy it.
After watching the video of InWith's CEO interview, someone said very sharply: "There is no action, than the boss wearing cheap vintage glasses and bragging about his own high-priced unverified contact lenses, which can boost market confidence." 」
Some people have mild reservations: "This product looks like a VR headset, but I don't want it to be a device I wear all day." I've been bombarded with constant visual signal input all day, unsure if I'm going to burden my already exhausted brain."
The sneers brought about by the current online advertising issue also affected the topic of AR contact lenses: "It's not that I'm deliberately mean, this thing looks like a good channel for advertising."
"We expect AR contact lenses to have 85% population coverage before they induce epilepsy."
Another is pranking on future uses: "This concept, coupled with AR glasses that look the same as regular glasses, will fundamentally change the future of education." Exams based on repetitive memory don't work, and any student can project answers on lenses without anyone noticing. This future will come sooner than everyone expected."
Of course, there are also people who seriously hope that AR contact lenses will improve their lives:
"I love this, and if the glasses can be connected to the AI, it would be even better if I could telepromp words in real time or give a translation while I'm chatting with someone."
"Agree, I don't hear very well, if this lens can pop up other people's dialogue subtitles in real time, it will be beautiful." 」
Some netizens inserted comments on this on the spot: "If you want to produce subtitles and translations, there is now this function in various deaf and dumb service apps on smartphones, and you can directly select 'voice to text'."
The landlord replied: "The Accent of the Scots has always been able to beat most speech recognition AI. It's already on TV."
Market dynamics: The future may be bright, but the obstacles have not yet been overcome
InWith is not the only company that does smart contact lenses, Mojo Vision, Novartis, Innovega, etc. in professional eyewear equipment companies, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Sony, Samsung, Qualcomm, etc. in the integrated large companies, have invested a lot of resources and time in the research projects of smart contact lenses.
From the research project of the US Department of Energy in 2002, to the boom brought by Google Smart Glasses in 2013, the smart contact lenses put into the mass consumer market have new developments almost every year, but every year they have not really changed the industry and the actual popular market products are sold.
Even with the metaverseal heat wave that begins in 2021, it is still unknown when the smart contact lens industry will prosper like other smart mobile devices, or even VR headsets.
Yes, countless augmented reality and extended reality application scenarios can be greatly improved by smart contact lenses. For example, cyclists can see the terrain, location coordinates, and physical function indicators from AR contact lenses in real time.
The store guide can instantly link the customer's AR lens on the page of the product, and sell the goods in good faith and efficiency.
Despite these benefits, technical obstacles and unclear functional positioning have always plagued the development of smart contact lenses.
Contact lenses can be divided into soft and hard.
The dural scleral lens is stiff and does not change its shape along the cornea. If intelligent contact lenses are made, they can greatly increase the amount of oxygen passed through and allow tears to be fully exchanged. However, hard intelligent contact lenses must be customized with each customer's eyeball, and the cost of customization is higher.
Soft contact lenses are generally made of soft plastic, and the lenses are softer. Soft smart contact lenses stretch with the eyeball without pre-customization. However, it is more difficult to integrate complex components and the development cost is also high.
The functional positioning of intelligent contact lenses makes manufacturing difficulties more complicated. Most manufacturers are torn between the choice between "fully functional iPhone" and "simple and durable".
To make smart contact lenses simple, most consumers will be too lazy to repeat the consumption and directly purchase other existing devices with the same function but lower price and proven performance.
To make the intelligent contact lens fully functional, even with the current developed microelectronics technology, the thickness of the lens will still be thick enough to make the user uncomfortable. Troubled, Mojo Vision simply put the CPU and GPU in the neckband module, and the invisible lens only did a projection screen.
However, the consumer's reaction was "I also need to wear a neckband, so troublesome, why don't I just buy a VR headset."
The future is very full, but the present is very bone, which seems to be the common situation of all VR and AR devices. How the way out, only slowly groped.
Resources:
https://www.cnet.com/news/inwith-promises-worlds-first-smart-contact-lens/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxjcjG9XXII
https://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/rzrxwm/inwith_promises_worlds_first_soft_smart_contact/