UNIST: Contact lenses with GPS navigation

History

2022: System Development

At the end of 2022, South Korean scientists announced the development of a new technology for creating smart contact lenses capable of providing navigation information.

The project was attended by specialists from the Korea Research Institute of Electrical Technologies (KERI) and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). A smart contact lens is a small device attached to the human eye like a regular lens and providing various information. For this, for example, augmented reality (AR) technology can be used. Despite experiments in this area, there are many obstacles to the commercialization of the technology due to a number of serious problems.

Lenses will provide navigation information thanks to AR technology

Electrochromic displays with low power consumption are suitable for creating AR lenses. They propose to use the so-called Berlin azure - a special blue pigment that has high price competitiveness and allows you to form contrasting images. In previously conducted experiments, pigment was applied to a substrate in the form of a film by electrodeposition, which limited the functionality of displays in terms of displaying various information (letters, numbers, etc.).

The achievement of researchers from KERI and UNIST is that their technology allows you to implement augmented reality by printing microsatellites on a lens display using a 3D printer. Berlin azure crystallizes by evaporating the solvent in the meniscus (curvature of the free surface of the liquid due to its contact with the surface of the solid) formed between the microsope and the substrate. Due to the precise movement of the nozzle, the crystallization of Berlin azure continuously occurs, as a result of which micro-patterns are formed. They can form not only on flat, but also on curved surfaces. This method allows you to implement navigation in AR lenses.^[1]

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