The Low-Tech Times Recommends Seeing Reality
Michael Pollitt wrote an interesting article for The Guardian about Babak Parviz’s efforts to create a contact lens that can access the Internet and display data.
According to the article, James Wolffsohn is skeptical:
Professor James Wolffsohn of Aston University in Birmingham isn’t enthusiastic. As the head of optometry, his research interests include contact lenses. “I’ve never seen anyone try and print circuits on to a contact lens,” says Wolffsohn.
He points out that a contact lens is around 14mm wide, compared to the pupil’s diameter of between 4mm and 5mm. He reckons that doesn’t leave a lot of space for electronics without interrupting vision; and it might be difficult to project an image from the periphery into the eye’s central area.
Regardless of whether or not the idea is feasible, LED contact lenses are a bad idea. When I look out into the world, I want to see what is really in front of me. If I want to see a bunch of text, links, and graphics, then I’ll turn on a computer.
Those that require streaming Internet content 24 hours per day to their eyeballs have a harmful hi-tech addiction.