Brain-Mounted Computers/Active Contact Lens Displays

Adam Ozinek has an interesting article (cited on Sullivan) about what he sees as an inevitable future:

Let me describe it extreme layman’s terms (the only terms I know): you’ll have a powerful computer in your future iPhone-like-device that is connected to a special contact lens that so that screens floats in front on your face, and you steer the whole thing with your brain. The most important facts about this technology is that a) nobody will be able to tell whether you’re looking at your computer or not, and b) it will always be available to you. Why is using this device a dominant strategy? Choosing to use it is simply expanding your memory and factual knowledge to include everything on the internet. As far as anyone who knows you can tell you will never misspell a word,  not know a fact, forget the words to a song, or know any piece of data. Quick: what was the per-capita GDP of Guatamala in 1976? Anyone with a brain mounted computer will be able to tell you.

This sounds vaguely familiar to something TAE published back in February:

After a moment, a red arrow appears in front of me on the ground, and the words "150 yards" appears below the arrow. I follow the direction of the arrow, which disappears when I pass over it. Further ahead, a second arrow appears, signalling a turn right out the concourse into the stadium seating area. I follow it. Of course, I am the only person that can see these red arrows. The information is being fed directly to my eyes via active contact lenses with tiny LEDs and circuitry printed directly on them. The contact lenses give off no magnification; my eyesight is fine. The circuitry is powered by radio waves beamed from a control unit in my hat. I follow the arrows until a "ding" in my ear informs me that I am near my wife. An arrow in the sky, pointing downward, indicates her location. I go meet up with her.

During the game, the down and distance, first down line, and various player stats are all displayed on my "heads up display" contacts. Mrs. TAE and I got $2 discounts on our tickets, but in exchange for this, during half-time Coca-cola beams a commercial directly to our eyes, even with our eyes closed we see the images. Coke, pouring out of a glass bottle (I mention to Mrs. TAE that glass bottle soda is impossible to find outside of Mexico) into a big glass fills our vision, but by now we are so used to ads being beamed in that we ignore it and enjoy conversation and the band out on the field.

I go further:

Back up in the seating section, I am enjoying a new feature: the football has a tracking device in it, and it glows bright red in my contact lens HUD during plays. This allows me to see where the ball is, and laugh when the defense is duped by a fake hand-off.

After the game, my HUD leads me to my car. While we are walking, Mrs. TAE suggests we consider upgrading from our red monochrome contacts to newer contacts with 7 colors. I suggest we wait a little longer, I have read that the new 256 color contacts are expected to reach consumers within the next two months.

 Now, far be it for me to suggest that I am ahead of the curve on predicting the future. Rather, let me just say that I completely agree with Adam, that eye-mounted computer displays are the future. But he misses something that I didn't: the advertising. Why did Google want to develop the Android OS for cellular phones? So they could advertise on your phone! Any new display technology is of course going to be immediately trolled for all its worth by hungry corporations looking to get in your face with their products. To me, it makes perfect sense that you might buy your contacts from a manufacturer, and then subscribe to a wireless network service, like Verizon or Sprint or AT&T, and subsequently you'd get access to the internet on the surface of your eyeballs but in exchange you might be forced, at certain times, to watch commercials, or have part of your eyeball-mounted display have an ad bar.

One further thought: in that article I wrote back in February, I also suggested that along with contact lens displays, sound would also be accessible by implanted ear bud devices:

Arriving at the football game, I call my wife. I pull my Droid out of my pocket and find her number in the speed dial. I dial her, then put the phone away. A ring sounds in my left ear. Last month, I had a wireless device implanted on the surface of my ear drum, that strikes a tiny "mallet" on my drum, creating sounds where there are none. "Hello" I hear her voice.
"Update your location, I can't find you." I reply. "Okay," she says and I hear the hanging up noise.

Because whats the fun of watching Youtube videos while you are supposed to be paying attention to a meeting...if you can't hear the sound in the video too?


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