Sony is in the front of the line of tech giant companies in filing a patent for a cutting-edge contact lens, which can zoom, shoot, record and store data within the lens itself.
The patent, which was filed in February 2014 and was granted just last month, is still raw and theoretical as the technology for this small-scale device has yet to be integrated. The patent designed by seven Japanese inventors offers a technology making lens capable of recording through the use of blinking as the trigger; it is equipped with mechanics able to discern intentional from natural blinking to switch the device on and off. It is literally taking pictures with the blink of one's eyes.
The idea of high-tech lenses first surfaced with Google's Glass in 2013, which has met criticisms for its privacy issues. The idea of capturing images without any visible device other than the eyes concerned consumers with potential privacy violations, even prompting the U.S. Congress to intervene.
Sony has already made a promising marketing with the product and even added features such as focus, zoom, aperture and stability, just like a real camera would do. It also offers the storage of the data within the lens itself, and it can be transferred wirelessly to the next available device whenever one is ready.
However, the technology of the camera lenses is only a mere prototype for now, and the patent does not guarantee anything yet. While the market is filled with other types of high-tech lenses offering a wide variety of advanced functionalities such as Google's patent for solar-powered lenses in January 2014, which reportedly helped detect health and body factors such as temperature and glucose levels, and another that could be directly injected to the eye, Sony stood its ground with its patent on the technology of the future.
