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Mojo Vision announces that it has created a new prototype of augmented reality contact lenses Mojo Lens. The company believes smart contact lenses will bring “invisible computing” to life.
The Mojo Lens prototype is a milestone in the company’s development, testing and validation process, an innovation at the intersection of smartphones, augmented reality/virtual reality, smart wearables and medical technology.
The prototype incorporates a number of new hardware features and technologies built directly into the lens, improving its display, communications, eye-tracking and power systems.
Saratoga, California-based Mojo Vision has also invested in various software products for Mojo Lens over the past two years. In this new prototype, the company created the operating system core code and user experience (UX) components for the first time. The new software will enable continued development and testing of important use cases for consumers and partners.
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The initial target market is visually impaired people, as it will be a medically approved device that can help partially blind people see things like traffic signs better.
“We don’t call it a product,” Steve Sinclair, senior vice president of product and marketing, said in an interview with VentureBeat. “We call it a prototype. For us in the next year or so, we will take what we learned from it, because now we understand how to create a smart contact lens with all the elements. Now it is being optimized. software development, experimental development, security testing, a real understanding of how we are going to deliver a product for the visually impaired to the first interested customer.
Yellow Contacts
This new Mojo Lens prototype will further accelerate the development of invisible computing (a term coined by technologist Don Norman a long time ago), a next-generation computing experience where information is available and only provided when needed. This attractive interface allows users to quickly and discreetly get up-to-date information without forcing them to look at screens or lose focus on their surroundings and the world.
Mojo has identified the initial use of invisible computing for athletes and recently announced a strategic partnership with leading sports and fitness brands such as Adidas Running to jointly develop compelling hands-free experiences.
Mojo is working with new partners to find unique ways to improve athletes’ access to instantaneous or periodic data. Mojo Lens can give athletes a competitive edge by allowing them to focus on exercise or training and maximize performance without the distraction of traditional wearables.
“Mojo creates advanced core technologies and systems that weren’t possible before. Bringing new capabilities to lenses is a tough job, but successfully integrating them into such a small, integrated system is a great achievement in interdisciplinary product development,” Mike Wymer, co-founder and CEO of Mojo Vision, CTO, said in a statement. “We’re excited to share our progress and can’t wait to start testing Mojo Lens in real-life scenarios.”
“A lot of people have been working over the last year to get everything here to work and turn it into a working electrical form factor,” said Sinclair. “And in terms of wearing comfort, we’ve gone out of our way to make sure some of us can start wearing it safely.”
The company hired several people to form a software development team. The team is engaged in the creation of application prototypes.
I have already seen Mojo prototypes and demos in 2019. But then I did not see how much meat was on the bones. Sinclair said he still uses a green monochromatic color for all of his images, but has more components built into the sides of the glass that provide things like Internet connectivity.
It will be based on a special rigid, breathable plastic contact lens, since ordinary plastic is not suitable for various computer hardware that will be built into the device. So it is rigid and does not bend. It has sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers, as well as special radios for communication.
“We took all the system elements that we think could go into the first product. We’ve integrated them into a complete system that includes contact lens form factor and electrical work, and it’s ready to begin testing,” said Sinclair Say. “We call it a full featured lens.”
“We had some basic imaging and display capabilities built into this lens that we showed you in 2019, some basic processing power and antennas,” he said. from wireless power (i.e. power with magnetic inductive coupling) to a real battery system on board. So we found that magnetic coupling simply does not provide a stable power source.
Ultimately, the final product will cover the electronics in such a way that it looks more like part of your eye. According to Sinclair, eye-tracking sensors are more accurate because they are located on the eyes.
While demoing the app, I got to take a close look at some artificial lenses, which showed me what you would see if you looked through the lens. I see a green interface overlaid on the real world. Green is energy efficient, but the team is also working on a full color display for their second generation product. A monochrome lens can display 14,000 ppi, but a color display will be denser.
I can look at part of the image and double click on something, activate part of the app and navigate to the app.
It has a reticle so I know where to aim. I can hover over the icon, look in its corner, and activate the program. In these apps: I can see the route I’m cycling, or I can read the text on the teleprompter. Reading the text is not difficult. I can also use a compass to know which direction is which.
Today, the company published a detailed overview of these features on its blog. In terms of software, the company will eventually create a software development kit (SDK) that others can use to build their own applications.
“This latest Mojo Lens prototype represents a significant advancement in our platform and our company goals,” said Drew Perkins, CEO of Mojo Vision. “Six years ago we had a vision for this experience and faced a lot of design and technical challenges. But we have the experience and the confidence to deal with them, and over the years we have achieved successive breakthroughs.
Since 2019, Mojo Vision has partnered with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through its Breakthrough Devices Program, a voluntary program to provide safe and timely medical devices to treat an irreversible debilitating debilitating disease or condition.
To date, Mojo Vision has received funding from NEA, Advantech Capital, Liberty Global Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Shanda Group, Struck Capital, HiJoJo Partners, Dolby Family Ventures, HP Tech Ventures, Fusion Fund, Motorola Solutions, Edge Investments, Open Field Capital, Intellectus Ventures, Amazon Alexa Fund, PTC and others.
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Post time: Aug-09-2022
