Remember
Google Glass? The doofusy headsets which enabled super-nerds to snap photos by
simply blinking their eyes? It had been one of Google's numerous unmitigated
failures, and not only because it looked therefore stupid on anyone who dared
put it on in public. Rather, Google Glass caused a widespread freak-out since
it was disturbingly easy with regard to wearers to surreptitiously catch photos
and video of individuals around them, without their own knowledge or
permission. Dealing with an onslaught of critique over privacy concerns, Google
halted production under a year after Glass hit the industry.
The
big G said it wasn't quitting on Glass and promised an entire redesign, and we
have not heard much since. Now it appears like it's set its sights on the much
smaller, inconspicuous wearable: a contact. And while this tiny bit of optical
tech will definitely solve the embarrassing glasshole issue, the creepiness
factor looms bigger than ever.
Google's
research started innocently enough...
Google's
first patent application for any contact lens was approved long ago in 2014,
when it had been still in the attention (! ) of a pr shit-storm over Google
Cup. The headsets were becoming banned by restaurants, pubs, theaters, and
sports occasions, and Google was getting ready to take them off the marketplace
altogether. Unveiling an even weirder wearable at this type of moment seemed
like an enormous PR miscalculation -- before you realized what the lens was
actually created for.
On its
blog, Google excitedly outlined how the mysterious contact lens wasn't some
newfangled eyeball digital camera, but rather a device targeted at helping
people with diabetes, capable of constantly monitoring glucose levels via the
glucose within tears. The announcement successfully shifted attention from the
Glass disaster to some new project, one that would stop painful finger-pricking
for huge numbers of people.
Since
then Google has partnered using the pharmaceutical giant Novartis to obtain
things moving, and has also begun developing yet another kind of lens to
restore the actual eye's natural autofocus with regard to patients with
age-related long-sightedness. Neither device has hit the industry yet, but the
latter may reportedly enter human-testing trials this season, and Google's even
patented the packaging for this.
...
But of course this didn't stop there
It
would've been foolish to assume Google would avoid the opportunity to
additional develop the technology to show our eyes into digital cameras. The
company made head lines again this month having a new patent application to
have an "intra-ocular device" -- a little gizmo (pictured above) that
might be surgically implanted into your own eye. According to the actual
document, it would not only manage to correcting poor vision with time as your
eyes grow older, but would have another special functions baked within, too --
the capability to connect to other cellular devices, charge via sent radio
energy, and click and store photos. Hmmm… problem?
Will
shrinking the camera down to how big a contact lens solve all of the problems
that plagued Search engines Glass? Aesthetically, sure -- but as unsightly
since the headsets were, you could a minimum of tell if someone had been
wearing one. There's nothing more unnerving than being on the other hand of a
stranger's digital camera, but you couldn't hide a tool as obvious as Search
engines Glass in, say, a locker room or cinema. But when that gadget is
surgically implanted on to an eyeball, detecting whether someone is actually
wearing one -- or whether it's actively recording images from any given moment
-- becomes much more problematic.
Now
Google has competition within the contact-lens race
If you
are concerned, it gets even worse: Google is far from alone with this quest to
advance optical technologies. Both Samsung and Sony are developing their very
own contact lens-based concepts. Based on a recently revealed Samsung obvious
application from 2014, the South Korean conglomerate might be hard at work on
the lens that would permit you to take photos by flashing. It would connect for
your smartphone and project images on your eye via a little display -- put 2
and two together, and it is not crazy to imagine the next where we'll be
getting texts and notifications upon our eyeballs.
Similarly,
simply last month, details associated with Sony’s contact-lens project
(pictured above) had been uncovered, and it seems to be the most ambitious and
advanced from the bunch. The device enables you to view images and video using
the blink of an attention, and to record movie of what you're viewing. Not only
that, it'll incorporate aperture control, move, stabilization, and focus
manage. If this thing involves pass, it'll make your iPhone camera appear to be
a dinosaur.
Creepiness
apart, the technology is extremely exciting
Despite
the privacy implications of this, there's no denying that using a camera on
your eyeball will be cool as hell. Capturing everything you're seeing means
forget about "pics or it did not happen" moments, or toting around a
clunky camera on holiday. And as Jody Medich associated with Singularity
University told all of us, tech-equipped contact lenses would be the future of
virtual actuality. They'll not only allow us to view what star quarterbacks as
well as superstar musicians are seeing instantly as they play as well as
perform, but will additionally be critical components with regard to
augmented-reality systems.
Just
take a look at Magic Leap. Never heard about it? It's an under-the-radar,
Google-backed "mixed reality" new venture that's developing some
genuinely mind-bending virtual- and augmented-reality technology. It just filed
a lot of new patent applications, including a VR headset that could incorporate
a contact zoom lens (pictured above). The organization is mum on particulars,
but Recode predicts it can help automatically calibrate your eye's focus in
tandem having a larger headset so which virtual "objects" appear as
real for you as physical ones.
While
Google may be in front of the pack, there's no telling recognize the business
will actually be the very first to deliver a camera-packed contact to the
public. And also the more important question is actually this: which one would
be the first to convince us it won't turn us right into a civilization of super-creeps?
Techsourcenetwork