What is "Smart Contact Lens" that expands the world?

This article is reprinted from an article published on the site "MUGENLABO MAGAZINE" operated by KDDI

In the section of the task and chance, we will deliver a collaborative company and a startup case study every time.

"MOJO VISION", a smart contact lens company, which became a big topic in last year's CES, is an ambitious product that implates the sand grains in actual contact lenses.As a concept, Samsung, Google, Sony, etc. have announced their efforts since mid -2010, and Mojo Vision was founded in the middle of 2015.

They have a very small and dense, high -density dynamic display technology that can be attached to the contact lenses, and have been developed for computer visions, high -power -saving image sensors, high -band low -power radio communication devices, high -precision.We are conducting research on motion sensors for eye tracking and broken corrections, and we are working to realize this product.

In the relationship with Japan, there was an investment (2020) from KDDI Open Innovation Fund, which is operated by KDDI, but in December last year, menicons and smart contact lenses for major domestic contact lenses businesses and smart contact lenses.We announced that we have concluded.With this contract, the two companies will launch a physical study for commercialization of smart contact lenses.

How do domestic major and up -and -coming global startups co -create and what kind of hurdles are going to go beyond?I will ask both companies on the back side.In the first half, I would like to summarize MOJO VISION's products and visions we are aiming for, and in the second half, I would like to share the story of the team working on this co -creation in Menicon.

The worldview of AR (extended reality), which overlaps virtual content in the real world, has been spoken in the context of science fiction for a long time, as shown in the movie "Lady Player 1".On the other hand, with the advent of smart devices, AR content is becoming more familiar with services such as Pokemon GO and SNAP.

So what is the purpose of the smart contact lens now and how much is it realized?

MOJO VISION aims to be a world view that is extremely seamlessly overlapping virtual content to the real world.If you have a smart contact lens, you can provide information on the target person without dropping your gaze to your smartphone.In addition, due to the characteristics of contact, it is easy to get vital information because it is always worn.

As a business potential for all smart contact lenses, for example, if you have a basic disease, you will be able to convey information such as blood sugar levels to others quickly and request appropriate treatment.In other words, it can quickly provide information not only to the person who is wearing it, but also to the side who is looking at it.

MOJO VISION described this world view as "invisible computing."You can provide an experience as if you were in the local area no matter where you are, and be involved in the world without changing the "appearance" of the real world.

The founder Drew Perkins seems to have thought about the project in the wake of the health problems that once occurred.After that, I met Dr. Michael Dewering, who was studying 3D graphics on the San Micro System, and maintains the same biological resolution as the human eye, and can significantly reduce the necessary operational skills and power consumption.Successful development.

The computing and the digital world on the Internet, which humankind has been walking for 60 years, has been seeking a new view of the world through mobile shifts with the appearance of smartphones.Many researchers, companies, and consumers anticipate the world beyond that, and have been developing various things if the immersion is necessary for any experience of VR, AR, and MR.increase.

The world of ubiquitous, the world of anime, is now reaching the general consumer, as many AR glasses have appeared in this year's CES2021.

On the other hand, many XR devices such as VR, AR, and MR require a large "headgear".So MOJO VISON tried to solve the task with a contact lens.In addition to displaying data, it is not only an ordinary contact lens, but will also provide new information experiences targeting a wide range of people, such as consumers, retail, government, and visually impaired.

However, instead of targeting everything from the beginning, it seems that the early use case is assumed to be "Amret Nees".For example, providing appropriate information to firefighters entering the fire site, providing information that has not been satisfied so far, such as emergency medical sites, network engineers with both hands, and performance information during the athlete player or practice.Assuming the site of this, he would verify this unknown device.

In addition, in order to use it as a normal contact lens even when the function is turned off, "contact lens users", which are hundreds of millions of global people, are also targeted.If a general -purpose navigation service that can be used by general consumers is implemented, the idea is that these contact lenses will be used first.

From here, we will share the information as we can now know about the smart contact lens mechanism that Mojo Vision is developing.

Five years since the company was founded as a company, the concept has been conducting technical investigations for more than that, and this startup has more than 100 employees and 1 it has so far..We have procured $ 5.9 billion.Most employees are researchers and developers with PhDs, and have obtained more than 110 patents.

The smart contact lenses developed by MOJO VISON need to proceed in R & D in display, wireless communication, sensors, materials, and all, and contain extremely small displays, sensors, and batteries developed in this way in the strong angle membrane lens ( *).I needed it.The display is a mechanism that does not touch the cornea and has a maximized patent for oxygen supply, a strong enemy of the strong angle film lens.

* The strong angle film lens is a lens that covers the cornea (black eye) to the strong film (white eye).Smart contact lenses need to cover the eyeballs larger, and they have partnered with Japanese menicons, which have one of the world's leading technology.

The battery placed on the strong angle membrane lens is power saving, and it is currently assumed to be wireless charging.The sensor is embedded with a motion sensor that captures the movement of the eyeball and a computer vision used for image detection.

And 0 in this center.A display that can play text, photos, and videos are installed in a size of less than 5mm, and a thin plastic membrane is placed on the top of this, so that a video can be directly reflected on the retina from the display.increase.

The display is extremely close to the retina and does not block the view of the person wearing it.At present, it is a display with only green, but it is said that the color version is under development, so it can be installed on both eyes, so it can be three -dimensional.

By the way, what is worrisome is how to operate it.

About this method, MOJO VISION adopted eye tracking as a pointing device, that is, eye movements.MOJO's smart contact lenses are expected to move in conjunction with the wearable devices that they call "relay devices".

Send the movement of the eyeballs captured by the lens to this relay device and send it back to the lens within 10 milliseconds.As a result, the movement of the eyeballs is always grasped by the lens, so even if the viewing position moves, the content is placed in the correct position, and this movement itself can be used as a pointer device.In addition, this relay device could communicate with other smartphones and clouds, and it was said that it would be linked to various services at first.

So far, we have explained the current location of the smart contact lens developed by MOJO VISION based on the company's explanation.In the latter half, we will ask the team of a major domestic contact lens, which made a shocking partner announcement last year, why they were the background of their co -creation.