LCD displays may soon be available on your contact lenses.
Liquid crystal display or LCD display technology has been developed for contact lenses that can be worn directly on the eye.
Researchers at the Centre of Microsystems Technology at Ghent University in association with Belgium’s Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre have created a prototype of the lenses, which feature a dollar sign, but can be changed to other basic symbols.
In the future, the technology may have medical applications like controlling the light transmission 'to retina in case of a damaged iris', or acting as protection against some forms of radiation like contact lens sunglasses.
One of the researchers Jelle De Smet said: “Normally, flexible displays using liquid crystal cells are not designed to be formed into a new shape, especially not a spherical one. Thus, the main challenge was to create a very thin, spherically curved substrate with active layers that could withstand the extreme molding processes.”
Other technological hurdles that the scientists had to overcome include providing an electricity source to the lens, but wirelessly powered contact lens displays have been successfully tested on live rabbits without any negative side effects.
If they came out on the market, would you use the contact lens LCD displays?
