'Bionic Lens' Adds Computing Power to Sight

Feb. 5, 2008 -- The bionic eye has arrived: engineers have, for the first time, combined a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

The lens could give wearers a new look at the world by superimposing computerized images onto their natural view.

Such virtual displays could be useful to drivers and pilots, who could obtain route, weather, or vehicle status information overlaid onto their vision. Video-game players could immerse themselves in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion.

The lens could even be paired with sensors that monitor a person's biological conditions -- cholesterol level or the presence of viruses and bacteria, and transmit the data wirelessly to a computer.

"If we're successful initially, and it takes off, this can get really sophisticated in the next few years," said Babak Parviz, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle.

For example, said Parviz, miniature cameras with adaptive lenses could be incorporated, able to zoom in on something far away or to look at something very close -- providing, essentially, bionic vision.

Parviz and his team developed the lens using micro-fabrication and self-assembly techniques similar to those used to make semiconductor chips.

They started with the material polyethylene terephthalate -- or PET -- the same plastic used to make containers for foods and beverages.