Google, one of the largest and most successful tech companies in history, began as a simple search engine. But all of the products that they develop are essentially outsourced products that use Google software. Over the years however the company began expanding its range of applications and other software and eventually began to stray into hardware with the introduction of its Android operating system. But even then, Google was not manufacturing the phones that these systems were used in however when Google Glass first became available a few months ago to beta testers the changing dynamic became quite evident.
While the four frame choices were manufactured by Luxottica (makers of Ray-Ban and Oakley), Glass hardware is strictly a Google product. Google Glass comes with a number of interesting features built directly into high-end eye glass frames, including the ability to surf the internet and take both photos and videos, all using voice commands. But Google has yet again upped the ante for any tech companies planning on challenging their current supremacy with contact lens that not only have built-in cameras but can also monitor blood sugar levels by sampling the tear fluid.
This new development is important to the Google brand for a number of excellent reasons. While Google Glass and its potential have caught the imagination of techies everywhere there are also a number of critics as well. There has already been a lot of speculation in the media and online about the probability that someone will become distracted while using the interface and have an accident. The fact that the GUI and camera are also in a fixed position makes it sometimes difficult to use and function normally at the same time. The new contact lenses however have an embedded circuit that is linked wirelessly to the camera and sensors which monitor eye movement (not head movement), which causes the video camera to actually track eye movements and adjust the camera accordingly.
Google Patents Contact Lens
The original patent was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office in 2012 after being developed by Google X lab. Previous attempts at “smart” contact lenses have been made but have not been really practical until now. The original patent filing also hints that the lens could be made to take the raw image, process it and then relay what is seen through another of the user’s senses, such as hearing, which would be great for people with vision problems and might even have a zoom feature, giving users very powerful vision.
The project currently has no plans to add web browsing and it is unlikely that your email will be beamed directly into your skull any time soon.
But while there are still questions that need to be asked about this new product the potential seems very promising. The fact is that with the recent release of Google Glass the jury will be out on that product for at least a couple more years. But whether or not they are successful however really will not affect the potential release of the new lenses because they seem to solve most of the problems presented with Glass.
