The Future of Sight

It is hard to predict how the human of the future will look; however, it is possible to speculate on how the human of the future is likely to look at things.

All sorts of crazy (and interesting) developments have been happening recently from pixie dusts to re-growing injured tissue to artificial livers. I am guessing we will see two types of development for making the "new and improved" human of the future. One type will rely on using what is available from the machinery of the body -- say, as in cellar DNA or the tissue -- to evolve it to something useful. This could be for repairing injury or reducing the effects of aging. This type of work will need some heavy duty biochemistry, and is likely to face some serious moral and societal questions. The second type of development may get help from high-tech to augment the human performance or to fix it if it needs some extra help.

We have seen this later type of development for a long time now. Any device from prosthetics to pacemakers fits the description. My guess is that in the near and mid-future, we will see more of these types of devices and definitely more sophisticated ones before we switch to solutions that evolve and use the body itself in the more distant future. Here is one example of a high-tech device that can augment the human performance that you might find interesting:

Sight is one of the main venues for us to explore the outside world. For the longest time, we relied on what the body had until the advent of optics gave us spectacles for correcting vision, and microscopes and telescopes for augmenting the visual power of the human eye. Any person who uses glasses is using a device that manipulates the light rays on their way to the retina to modify the image that is perceived. We are quite used to this now and do not consider it something strange.

Let's extend this to contact lenses. Any person who wears contact lenses is using a device that manipulates the light rays that enter the eye. So far, the contact lenses have been passive polymer structures. But! It is possible to imagine that we can integrate functional devices into a contact lens and turn it into a functional system. What if we had a contact lens that had an integrated semi-transparent display and wireless telecommunication capability ... This lens would be able to project images for the person and at the same time give him/her full mobility. If you had a contact lens that could image what is seen by the person, analyze it, and superimpose some computer-generated graphics onto the scene, you have the opportunity to tailor-make "reality" for each person. This is an interesting way -- to put it mildly -- to augment/alter the visual capabilities of the future human.

Is the idea of building a functional contact lens with an integrated display and wireless capability completely crazy? If recent advances in nanoelectronics, photonics, ultra-low power circuits, miniature power sources, and making biocompatible microstructures are any indicator, the answer is no! Actually, our research group currently is working in building functional contact lenses ...

It is "perceivable" that the human of the future may be using a contact lens that is packed with sensors, electronics, optics, etc. That would be truly a sight to see!

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About this Week's Guest Blogger:

Babak A. Parviz
Assistant Professor
Bionanotechnology, Self-Assembly, Nanofabrication, MEMS
University of Washington

PHOTOS: University of Washington | Courtesy of Babak A. Parviz

Comments

[Ajlouny]

This is awesome to know, but who's insurance can cover these types of prosthetics?

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We are all about to become Cyborgs.

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This lens would be able to project images for the person and at the same time give him/her full mobility.

[reyCute]

Great Inventions!

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How is it that the guy's t shirt appears different?

[Professional Translation Services]

I posted your article to my myspace profile.

Regards
Tammy