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AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Google has experimented with its own smart contact lens that can measure glucose levels.
# eyeful
The simple contact lens could be the next place for your camera
The latest patent awarded to Sony describes a contact lens that can take photos by recognising deliberate blinks.
CURRENTLY OUR MOST-USED camera is the one that’s built into our smartphone, but many major companies are thinking about ones how to use more subtle objects for the same purpose
The latest one comes from Sony which was rewarded a patent concerning a smart contact lens that can capture photos and videos.
The wearer can blink to activate it, and light sensors built into it would be able to tell the difference between an involuntary and voluntary blink.
The patent also mentions how it could complete actions you would normally associate with a camera like zoom, focus, and changing the aperture. When the user takes a photo, the image will be displayed first before it’s saved onto a device.
Other companies have been experimenting with their own smart contact lenses in recent times or at least expressed an interest in the area.
Samsung recently filed a patent for another similar type of contact lens, which would allow wearers to see images being projected into their eyes. It also notes a way to take photos using a built-in camera.
And Google X, which is now just X after the main company changed to Alphabet, created a smart contact lens that could measure glucose levels.
It also had a similar piece of technology in the form of Google Glass, but privacy concerns and negative opinion saw it close down its Explorer programme and focus on industries instead.
A contact lens with the same functionality would be more inconspicuous but the technology required is likely a few years away before it reaches the public.
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