An electronic contact lens has been developed that will enable maps and videos to be beamed before the wearer’s eyes.

The bionic lens has microscopic circuits fixed to a flexible plastic. The scientists who created the device say the lenses could eventually provide computer-aided vision similar to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s robotic character in the Terminator films.

A prototype of the lens has been built, with light-emitting diodes – LEDs – embedded in it to flash up information. Its built-in antenna will use wireless technology, similar to that used in the home, to beam information to the lens, allowing wearers to surf the internet without taking their eyes off the world around them.

Microscopic electrical circuits link up the LEDs and the antenna harvests energy from radio waves to power the lens. Holes which are each 1,000 times thinner than a human hair are etched on to the lens.

Electronic components are attached by floating them across the lens surface, where capillary forces suck each one into the right-sized hole. The eye relies on only a small amount of light entering the pupil at a time, so wearers will still be able to see through the lens, while the circuitry is built around the edge.

Source : Telegraph.co.uk

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