Samsung Granted Patent for Smart Contact Lenses

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Samsung has been granted a patent by South Korea for contact lenses that can display an image direction onto the user’s eye.

The lenses would work with your smart phone to process data. The plan is that they would have a built-in micro camera and sensors that are controlled through blinking. I would think that might some issues, but there are also plans to control it through your smart phone, which might be a better alternative.

The first and most important feature that is being researched is the contacts’ ability to help those with diabetic health issues. Googles patent shows sensors and flexible electronics that would read the saline for blood sugar levels.

This is apparently Samsungs response to the trend towards wearable virtual reality devices, but I see so much more potential for it.

We all know about heads up displays(HUD) – a transparent screen that provides data to a user without the user requiring to look away from their target. We see it frequently in video games, fighter cockpits, and even some cars have it as an available option.

Maybe these new lenses will eventually be used for something similar, such as GPS.

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, this only a patent, and no product development has even been started, even though the patent was applied for in several countries about two years ago. It’s a concept that may never take off. Ideas are frequently copy-written with pending patents in an effort to protect them, and only a portion of those patents ever see reality.

Samsung isn’t the first one to apply for a patent for smart contact lenses, Google had also previously filed for patents on smart contacts, however theirs are mostly for medical use.