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Contact lens based displays are a technological dead end IMHO, due to the infection risk. The majority of contact lenses used by younger generations are now dis

by pnw 5y ago

Contact lens based displays are a technological dead end IMHO, due to the infection risk. The majority of contact lenses used by younger generations are now disposable, so the adoption curve for a display lens is going to require something cheap enough to be thrown out after every use. The alternative is inconvenient lens disinfection processes or an eye infection. I don’t see any reasonable way to overcome any of these obstacles in the near term. It’s not like contact lenses themselves are a new technology. Virtual retinal displays mounted in glasses are far more interesting, and decent prototypes have already been built cf Microvision.

wollsmoth 5y ago
yeah I think I'd rather keep using my daily contacts and put on some non-corrective AR glasses.
bigmealbigmeal 5y ago
These are some pretty damning issues, but I don’t think it’s fair to conclude that it makes the technology a dead end. For example, implantable contact lenses are commonly used to treat myopia. The lens is implanted in the eye over the long term, no infection. There’s no reason why this isn’t feasible for contact lens screens. One could posit that people won’t want to implant a contact lens screen in their eye, and perhaps they won’t, but it’s up for debate and perhaps underestimated how readily many people dive head first into scary new things (think, say, how many used LSD in the 60s). Even if the lenses weren’t implanted, it’s still feasible for disposable contact lens screens to be cost-effective. You can buy all types of screens right now for less than a dollar. It’s not impossible to make cheap disposable screens for contact lenses. Again, there are difficult problems to solve here, but I think calling it a technological dead end underestimates just how novel and clever humans can be to make things work.
moron4hire 5y ago
What?! Disinfection of the lenses is "inconvenient"? You do it while you sleep. You just put them in a capsule and squirt some fluid in. It's not at all hard.

by pnw 5y ago

wollsmoth 5y ago

yeah I think I'd rather keep using my daily contacts and put on some non-corrective AR glasses.

bigmealbigmeal 5y ago

These are some pretty damning issues, but I don’t think it’s fair to conclude that it makes the technology a dead end. For example, implantable contact lenses are commonly used to treat myopia. The lens is implanted in the eye over the long term, no infection. There’s no reason why this isn’t feasible for contact lens screens. One could posit that people won’t want to implant a contact lens screen in their eye, and perhaps they won’t, but it’s up for debate and perhaps underestimated how readily many people dive head first into scary new things (think, say, how many used LSD in the 60s). Even if the lenses weren’t implanted, it’s still feasible for disposable contact lens screens to be cost-effective. You can buy all types of screens right now for less than a dollar. It’s not impossible to make cheap disposable screens for contact lenses. Again, there are difficult problems to solve here, but I think calling it a technological dead end underestimates just how novel and clever humans can be to make things work.

moron4hire 5y ago

What?! Disinfection of the lenses is "inconvenient"? You do it while you sleep. You just put them in a capsule and squirt some fluid in. It's not at all hard.