At the CES conference every year, you can expect to see technological innovations that blow last year’s designs out of the water, and this year is no different. Google Glass had a good run in 2013, but its time for it to share the spotlight with iOptik, a contact lens system on to which media can be streamed and which can display a full-screen HUD.
Developed by wearable technology startup company, Innovega, the iOptik platform actually features two elements: a special pair of eyeglasses that serves as a transparent projection screen, and a pair of novel contact lens. Like Google Glass, the iOptik system can project “glance-able” displays, which are positioned at the periphery. But when the contact lens and eyeglasses are combined, the wearer can experience their surroundings in a brilliant display that is “equivalent to a 240-inch television, viewed at a distance of 10 feet.”
Willey commented on how users can wear the contact lenses without the glasses, but in order to activate the iOptik software, users must look through the paired glasses. When asked about the manufacturing process and design, Willey said, ”All the usual optics in the eyewear are taken away and there is a sub-millimeter lens right in the center. It’s shaped, so the outside of the lens is shaped to your prescription if you need one and the very center of the lens is a bump that allows you to see incredibly well half an inch from your eye.”
As an added benefit, people who rely on correctional lenses can use the iOptik system to their benefit – these contact lenses serve the same purposes as normal lenses do.
Currently, the prototype syncs with Android smartphones, and Willey has indicated that developers are free to design the iOptik system to fit specific experiences for whatever kinds of devices in the future.
See the demonstration video below.
This post was originally written by Serena Chu for PSFK.