Eyes Forward to HUD Lenses

The American military, already one of the most tech-saavy industries in the US, is now looking at video games as inspiration for their newest project: mixed-reality contact lenses, transparent yet able to depict transmitted images. In their Request for Information (RFI), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) utilized first-person shooters as their primary illustrative point: “This information might be command-and-control information, not unlike information provided to players of first-person, shooter-type video games or synthetic entities and effects in a live training environment.” The US government seems quite fond of our dedication to first-person shooters, though these lenses are hardly the America’s Army style marketing campaign for enlistment.

Although not as stylish as BOXfab’s virtual reality prototype, DARPA’s contact lenses would be completely untethered and innocuous, utilizing lasers or possibly LEDs to directly display information to its wearer. Images may be sent wirelessly via radio waves to the device, though any particulars are speculative at best. Potential for use in training, reconnaissance, or any number of activities where bulky, cumbersome devices are required is only one of many practical reasons to pursue this technology.

This is evident, as researchers at the University of Washington have already been dusting off such designs, with sights set on “superhuman vision.” Although their uses differ, the development and results will undoubtedly be remarkably similar for both medicine and military.

This kind of technology may not affect gamers until the very, very distant future. But video games are inspiring the outside world and technology today, and that affects us here and now.