Scientists from NTU Singapore have developed a flexible battery as thin as a human cornea, which stores electricity when it is immersed in saline solution, and which could one day power smart contact lenses.
Scientists invent micrometers-thin battery charged by saline solution that could power smart contact lenses::Scientists from NTU Singapore have developed a flexible battery as thin as a human cornea, which stores electricity when it is immersed in saline solution, and which could one day power smart contact lenses.
Saline is isotonic and, short of a large electrolyte imbalance, shouldn't cause any/very little irritation to your eyes. And if you're hyponatremic to the point of saline solution causing eye irritation, you have much more immediate and life threatening problems to attend to than risnsing your peepers out
Out of anything a saline solution is probably the least harmful thing you can put in your eyes. It's effectively what tears are (in addition to a few other things) too.
Very cool technological achievement, but eye-batteries don’t necessarily sound all that safe, non-corrosive/toxic or not, it’s still a constant reaction to create and store electricity in a very vulnerable location.
Great. Hopefully by the time smart contact lenses come out (if ever) I'll be dead so I don't have to worry about another tool that can be used to spy on you for not only the government but for the large tech companies looking for the most intrusive ways to steal your info on the daily.
Would you be able to close your eyes to not see anything/ads? I don't know much about the tech, but I would assume a light is being emitted from the contact lenses and since that's behind your eye lids...
I have no idea how these work, but one hack idea off the cuff:
You get the light for free. At least when your lids are open; that's how vision works. A cheap digital watch lasts ages on a tiny coin cell because the polarisation of the LCD, which passes or blocks polarised light, takes minimal energy. Stack up a passive polariser, and the active LCD-like layer, (and maybe a second passive layer?) and you can cast selective shadows on the retina.
This gives you monochrome "smart vision" in the same sense as a monochrome Casio wristwatch. No idea how to tackle issues of focus at such a short focal length, or achieving any sort of active display let alone colour.
Maybe the whole thing is a pipe dream crackpot idea.
Light intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. A light that's only a few microns away from your cornea would look incredibly bright even with minimal power.