VR Smart Contact Lens

Meet the people using VR, AR and smart contact lenses to help the blind see

These technologies will help the visually impaired, some sooner than you might think

But beyond video games, a handful of companies are currently working on specific ways to use VR and AR to help the visually impaired and partially sighted to see. In fact, New York-based RaayonNova is already building what many considered the "end game" to all of this: smart contact lenses. "There are a number of issues with the existing technologies; they are not discreet," says Aleksandr Shtukater, the founder of RaayonNova. "They're visible to others and the system's control is driven by gestures."

Each lens has an embedded display directly over the eye's cornea, and would include features to help the visually impaired, such an embedded display that uses colour to direct the wearer, or to help magnify street signs or warn the person when they're near danger.

"We believe that the final frontier [is] AR and VR applications in the long run will replace smartphones," says Shtukater. "Our solution is to plug into the sense of sight in an intimate fashion and project visual information directly into the retina of the eye in an enriching and enabling fashion."

RaayonNova is working towards launching in 2019, which would make it a "first to market" if it can pull it off. "A mom working from an office can monitor her infant in a crib back home and can make the camera, at home, change direction or perhaps even initiate a conversation with the child," says Shtukater. "Even a lazy or tired individual working late and planning to go home can order from a local Chinese restaurant online through an AR smart contact lens." www.ar-smart-lens.com/

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