2 The world's first AR contact lenses , The entrance of the yuan universe is really open this time ？

source ： Silicon rabbit race （ID：sv_race） author ： LinQin   edit ： catalpa

Crazy contact lens project , I dare not make a movie like this

The world's first AR contact lenses , Small lenses “ perspective ” The vast world ？.

In the movie 《 Agent trump 》 in , The protagonist can instantly enter what others can't see with his glasses “ Second space ”, With agents all over the world AR Videoconferencing . When I naively think that this is the ultimate human imagination of the holographic future , A company in real life made me understand what is called “ Reality is more magical than movies ”.

Founded on 2015 year 、 Has been kept secret Mojo Vision, Recently, I threw a heavy Pound bomb —— Launch the world's first AR Contact lens prototype product .

You know, the last one was going to do AR The company of glasses North, Burning near 2 Billion dollars 、 Not sold 1000 A pair of glasses is hard to sustain , Finally, it was accepted by Google . Ambition ratio North Still big Mojo Vision What's the odds ？

01 Mojo Lens

Mojo Vision Since its establishment, it has gained 2.05 Billion dollars investment , Because it has been kept low-key and mysterious , Although the outside world has been snooping for many times, it has found nothing . company CTOMike Wiemer He even said publicly , Before making sure that the product can actually be used , Will not make any remarks . 

until 2020 Beginning of the year , The start-up company officially announced its first product plan —— A smart AR contact lenses .

Now? , This one is called “Mojo Lens” The prototype of the product shows the true face of Lushan Mountain .

As shown in the figure below , You can see at a glance that Mojo Lens Lenses are by no means conventional contact lenses .

It may have gathered all you can think of so far AR Technical characteristics of lens —— Monitor 、 Battery system 、 Eye tracking 、 Motion sensor 、 with 5-Ghz Modular ARM0 Processors and proprietary wireless technologies for content streaming .Mojo Lens It has three highlights ： The smallest in the world 、 The most dense pixels MicroLED display , apply AR Low delay communication technology of equipment (Low Latency Communication), And ultra accurate eye tracking system .

Mojo Lens The lens consists of several layers , The core element is the pixel density 14K Of MicroLED Monitor , It is also the company that started from 0 Start designing a display specifically for contact lenses , About the size of a grain of sand .

Put on this pair of smart contact lenses , You can see the text through the lens 、 All common formats for graphics and video display . It's just that the content comes from a separate mini computer , You need to hang this mini computer on your shoulder like a headset around your neck . Because the sensor and image sensor for motion detection are integrated ,Mojo Lens It can be displayed directly on the retina 15 The content within the horizon .

meanwhile , Use eye tracking , The lens detects the eye gaze position and adjusts the image consistency , That means you can turn off the monitor at any time by moving your eyes .

The image sensor is responsible for sensing the ambient light and adjusting the brightness and contrast of the lens , It can also recognize scenes and be used for object recognition . This may be true for people with vision problems Mojo Lens The wearer is very helpful .

As for the energy system of glasses ,Mojo Lens At present, it draws energy from the miniature battery commonly used in implant medicine , Enough for one day .

Foreign media CNET Reporter Scott Stein Experienced the prototype equipment , And an article is written to introduce . At that time, the product could not be put into people's eyes , But he has experienced many demonstration applications through lenses , Including travel applications that simulate the search of aircraft flight information , The lens can show the seat and boarding gate , Another fitness app pops up health data such as heart rate in a way similar to smart watch reading , In addition, there are applications of the teleprompter .

however , The current prototype version does not support focus debugging , The lens image is always displayed with some clear focus , That is to say, it can't be changed according to whether you look at the long distance or the macro distance .

The more important improvement is the energy system .

Now? Mojo Lens Our prototype is not the final product , The power supply system inside the device has not been fully activated , It also needs to be powered by external power supply , therefore , Wearing it directly will have potential safety hazards , Now we can only hold a special small bracket to give AR Contact lens power supply , And will AR Contact lenses close to their eyeballs to feel the display effect .

because Mojo Lens Data must be measured and customized individually for each buyer , In terms of price ,Mojo Lens It is likely to eventually rival the pricing of high-end smartphones .

Next ,Mojo Vision Will work with Japanese contact lens manufacturers Menicon cooperation , Continue to improve products , Jointly bring the first intelligent contact lens to the market , Including the latest round of this year 4500 Including Wanmei financial capital , A considerable part of the funds will directly serve this goal .

at present Mojo It plans to bring its first commercial glasses to the market within five years , First for medical purposes , Then for daily use , Occupy part of the smart glasses market through contact lenses .

Because high-tech contact lenses are still classified as medical devices , therefore , In addition to further technological development ,Mojo Vision Currently focusing on obtaining medical approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration , Its first user market is also set in the United States .

It's worth looking forward to , They have been given a place in a special program , It can speed up the approval process . But the exact timetable also depends on the speed of regulators .

02  Smart contact lenses , Would be AR Even the lowest barrier entrance of the metauniverse ？

so far , Google 、Facebook And big companies like apple haven't been able to produce elegant AR glasses , Not to mention useful smart contact lenses . therefore ,Mojo Vision The progress of has attracted much attention .

Mike Wiemer And his team AR Smart contact lenses have no doubt , Where did his confidence come from ？

First , It's time to get the company NEA、Khosla Ventures、8VC、AME Cloud Ventures、Amazon Alexa Fund、 HP 、LG And a series of endorsements from well-known institutions . “ Our successful fund-raising is both pressure and motivation . Develop the first real AR Smart contact lenses and all the breakthrough technologies they need are by no means easy , Our confidence comes from having built and worn an early prototype version . More than a dozen Mojo The staff wore our first prototype ,”Wiemer say .

in fact , The founding team's R & D around technology contact lenses can be traced back to 2010 year . In order to produce this “ The world's first AR contact lenses ” Prototype , They have persisted for more than ten years .

Co founder and CTO Mike Wiemer He has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University 、 Master's and doctor's degrees , And in semiconductor devices and applications 、 silicon photonics 、 Material integration 、 laser 、 Solar cell 、 Patents and papers on solar energy systems and analog circuits .2007 year , He founded. Solar Junction, Then he set two world records in improving the efficiency of solar cells , 2014 Sell the company in .

CEODrew Perkins Graduated from Carnegie Mellon University , Is a man who has 59 Year old serial entrepreneur , I have started and sold several companies , The last company was later sold to Nokia.

Both of them think ,AR Glasses or head display are not AR The future of , This kind of heavy hardware that covers the face and eyes , It's a physical barrier , In order to make AR/VR Become more popular , This barrier must be removed .

Mojo Lens What is advocated is “ Invisible computing ”, That is to build a computer that is completely invisible and integrated into people's daily life , The carrier is the contact lens in the eye .

“ We want people to have direct access to useful information , Without visual interference or discomfort caused by glasses , We believe that contact lenses are the future of wearable computers ”.

imagine , In everyday life ,Mojo Lens The information can be displayed to the wearer naturally , Without them constantly checking their phones ,“Mojo Vision Relevant and useful information should only be displayed when the user needs it , Everything is natural and efficient ”.

Release “ The world's first real smart contact lens ” after , The team will build on this new prototype , Further development 、 Test and iterate over new stealth computing experiences . meanwhile , The team will continue to conduct extensive user testing and analysis with partners 、 Software application prototype design and overall system and product optimization .

in addition , In addition to clinical tests for people with normal vision , The company will begin the clinical evaluation of lens in people with visual impairment .

Of course , Games or entertainment scenes related to the metauniverse will also be a possible application , however Mojo  Still very cautious , Avoid talking too much about the future and imagining , such as 5G Content stream or blade runner digital reality, etc .

“ We are currently developing and producing Mojo Lens Prototype . It is too early to talk about these futuristic details ”,Mike Wiemer In a recent interview .

Mojo Vision In fact, there are traces of such ideas , After all , Now Microsoft's Hololens 2  And Google. Google Glass In this way AR equipment , It has been used by companies such as Toyota and Boeing to help repair cars or build airplanes faster , Magic Leap It has also moved from manufacturing consumer centric products to targeting medical and defense applications .

Although the discussion about the metauniverse is only increasing , However, such as 《 No. 1 player 》 What is depicted in the film is generally totally immersed in VR perhaps AR In the device , It seems that it will take a long time . It may be practical to integrate the digital world with the real world .

just as  Mike Wiemer said ：“ When we share this latest prototype , The most commonly heard reaction is ：‘ I know there will be smart contact lenses , But I thought it needed 10 Years or 20 year ’. incorrect , This future is happening .”

since MagicLeap after ,AR The world has been waiting for a new tonic , Wait for a company to come up with enough solid、 Innovative products , I don't know this time ,Mojo Vision How far can we go in the direction of integrating digital and reality ？

Reference source ：

We Have Reached A Significant Development Milestone with Mojo Lens（mojo.vision）

Smart Contact Lenses: You Can Control a MicroLED Display With a Flick of Your Eyes（CNET）‍