I/O, I/O--it's off to work we go
Slashdot has a report on a University of Washington researcher who has developed a model for a digital contact lens, including a built-in LED matrix for display purposes. Although this particular prototype is still in the pre-working phase, it shows one possible direction that highly mobile display devices may go. Presumably you would interact with data via some other gadget like some kind of haptic gizmo and the resulting output would flow across the contact lens.
One consequence of this is that this will be that hyperactive, multitasking, ADD people will be rewarded. Imagine a street full of pedestrians and drivers, communing with the info zeitgeist as they move. This idea is completely contrary to where lawyers and legislators are headed with rules prohibiting GPS and cell phone use while driving. Although it is clearly in the sweet spot of where devices like the iTouch and iPhone are going.
I suspect that this kind of gadget, like the subcutaneous digital implants will be adopted by some generations and not by others.
Posted on January 21, 2008
