Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens(spectrum.ieee.org) |
Augmented Reality in a Contact Lens(spectrum.ieee.org) |
This is what Google Glass isn't even trying to do.
I get the impression that would be me in that future, worried about what was real or not, or how many false memories I'd be recalling because of something that was shown to me. I'm probably just being paranoid, but so was this character and if I recall correctly, it worked out for him in the end.
Thoroughly recommend getting hold of the third episode of the British SciFi show Black Mirror.
It features something roughly like Google Glass, plus Reddit Karma acting like BitCoins and like XP in World of Warcraft.
Maybe -- maybe if they couldn't connect to the Internet. I know I'm playing paranoid devil's advocate here, but if they have any sort of connectivity, I'm going to be terrified (maybe irrationally so) of the prospect of someone figuring out how to intercept them and blind me.
Besides, such a product could arguably be more useful than a car, and certainly more safe; you've driven, haven't you? I think you're being a little naive and hasty. I could see a similar comment 20 years ago about cell phones and "brain damage."
> By now you’re probably wondering how a person wearing one of our contact lenses would be able to focus on an image generated on the surface of the eye.
Yes, that is a bit of a problem. I'd say it's the main problem. Quite a bit of hand-waving here, just like the many other contact-screen speculations.
That said, those calculations are wicked complicated and take computational power, so hopefully some genius PhD comes up with an algorithm to generate those wavelet images in O(n).
On the other hand: tensor displays are basically already there for what you say (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r6lY8S4A6E).
It's a pretty solvable problem, we're just lacking the miniaturization (and power source) to make it practical.
(For the record, I have terrible eyesight. Different astigmatisms in both eyes and approaching -10 diopters.)
[1] http://www.bausch.com/en/Our-Products/Contact-Lenses/Contact...
I used to wear contacts every day, and even wore the daily disposables for a while. Those were actually really convenient.
My fear is that as ubiquitious, wearable computing takes over, it will increase the pressure to be connected all the time, as it further lay a meta network over the physical world. Of course culture will start to develop quickly around this new space, and those that don't want to wear such a device will be hopelessly left out of vital activities.
As a sliver of hope on the opposite end, maybe those who choose to stick with natural senses can improve those through mindfullness type methods. This might provide balancing benefits.
I don't understand the impulse towards this type of interface. I don't feel that great when I'm online, I have a feeling of being in alternate space, a mental space, and being kind of detached from "real" reality.
How about a drug that would improve standard perception and cognition at low cost and minimal side effects? That seems like technology that I could get behind!
It takes some getting used to (I seem to remember, but I've been wearing them for 15 years), but it's not that bad, honest!
While there might be a brand that would work for me, I have had no luck finding it.
The real danger is from more subtle manipulation, assuming most people come to trust what's being displayed. That's true of any information source that can be spoofed, though. GPS errors are bad enough already.
Even if not porn, Spam WILL be targeted at these eventually. I recall a scene in either "The Diamond Age" or perhaps a Gibson novel where the characters were using smart chopsticks that had been hit by malware which had once spewed ads but in that particular are of town had been spewing porn. Onto chopsticks.
(With my luck, it was Rainbow's End that had this scene -- I forget where I saw it, but it was memorable.)
There will always be someone trying to find a way to inject ads.
> just as Bud's sound system lived on his eardrums. You could even get
> telæsthetics patched into your spinal column at various key
> vertebrae. But this was said to have its drawbacks: some concerns
> about long-term nerve damage, plus it was rumored that hackers for big
> media companies had figured out a way to get through the defenses that
> were built into such systems, and run junk advertisements in your
> peripheral vision (or even spang in the fucking middle) all the
> time—even when your eyes were closed. Bud knew a guy like that who'd
> somehow gotten infected with a meme that ran advertisements for roach
> motels, in Hindi, superimposed on the bottom right-hand corner of his
> visual field, twenty-four hours a day, until the guy whacked himself.
-- Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age
The rest of your post is rather more accurate. Hence the need for good security (on devices that you don't wear as well as ones that you do).