Throughout 2017, we have already seen some pretty huge advancements in the world of augmented reality with the Microsoft Hololens and Mixed Reality Headsets leading the charge – but where does it go from here?
Well if the last 10 years have taught us anything, it’s that technology tends to decrease in size the more powerful it gets – iPhones have gotten thinner, laptops have gotten lighter, and now the race is on to develop a smart contact lens that puts the power of an AR headset directly into the human eye.
Though it may sound like something you would expect to see Q pulling out of his sleeve at the climax of one of James Bond’s mission briefings, major companies such as Google and Samsung have already released patents for their smartlens technologies and the world is waiting with bated breath to see what they can do.
For Google, their smartlens focuses specifically on healthcare, and their subsidiary, Verily Life Sciences (formerly Google Life Sciences) joined up with the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Novartis, to develop lenses that combat diabetes by checking the glucose levels present in tear fluid.
Moreover, the pair are also working on a project that will help combat presbyopia - a common disorder that affects nearly 1.7 billion people worldwide today and is expected to soar to 2.1 billion by 2020 - by autofocusing their vision whenever blurring occurs (no more reading glasses, yey!).
Though we can’t say for sure, this shift away from the AR market towards new horizons within the healthcare sector is potentially a result of Google Glass’s failure to compete with the monumental success Microsoft has had over the last few years with their headsets.
