A Heads Up . . . In Your Eye

Ever had a memory blank and fumbled through a song while your mind frantically tries to remember the notes?

Then perhaps you should consider music lessons.

Or wearing a head-up display on your eyeball.

For those of us unfamiliar with the term “head-up display”, it is basically as the name hints:

A head-up display, or HUD, is any transparent display that presents data without requiring the user to look away from his or her usual viewpoint.

So what are Engineers at the University of Washington up to now? Well, essentially they have managed to create a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

Because everything nerdy needs lights. Lots of lights.

There are thousands of possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers could see the location of upcoming speed cameras (heh heh). Video-game companies could use the contact lenses for displaying many things in front of gamers’ eyes. People could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display that only they would be able to see.

So basically, it’s a little creepy. Imagine watching someone staring straight ahead for twenty minutes doing absolutely nothing (I’m not sure how the Internet thing would work for clicking on different pages). So far only rabbits have worn the prototype, with no adverse effects for up to twenty minutes (I hate to wonder what happened to the rabbit after those twenty minutes), but with the speed technology seems to develop these days, they may soon be the next Facebook. (Seriously, is anyone over that site yet?)

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Tags: Unbelievable Notions