Engineers at the University of Washington transformed a fairy-tale concept into real thing when building for the first time a biological safe contact lens with a technology that could help the visually impaired, vehicle operators or may even be of interest to video game companies.

At the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, engineers revealed they had used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights. Harvey Ho is a former graduate student of Parviz’s now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, California.

“Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside. This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it’s extremely promising,” said Babak Parviz, A UW assistant professor of electrical engineering.

Parviz added that the bionic lens could have many possible uses for virtual displays. The lens give drivers the possibility to see a vehicle’s speed projected into the windshield. Video-game companies also can benefit from the new device and give their players the possibility to immerse themselves in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And, last but not least, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.

“People may find all sorts of applications for it that we have not thought about. Our goal is to demonstrate the basic technology and make sure it works and that it’s safe,” said Parviz.

Engineers admitted that building such a tiny electrical circuit from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick was a real challenge for them. They used organic material which is safe for the body. The device also contains red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up.

The lenses were tested on rabbits for 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects.

The research was funded with a grant from the National Science Foundation and Technology Gap Innovation Fund from UW.