Contact lens TV in 10 years?

Oh, the bother of having to be near an actual television when you want to watch a program! Researchers say those dark days may soon be behind us: Contact lenses that can beam video programming right into your eyeball may be just 10 years away from reality.

Ian Pearson, a futurist (not an engineer, mind you), says that body heat would provide all the energy needed to power the high-tech lenses. And that's not all: "Digital tattoos" could also be developed to allow wearers to literally feel the emotions that the director wants you to feel. Per the piece: "This would allow James Bond fans to feel the thrill of outdoing the enemy or sports fans to experience the elation of jubilant players."

Color me skeptical: Ten years seems like an awfully short time horizon for these developments. The technology for injecting an emotional state (er... legally and safely) via a skin patch is awfully out there, and contact lens TV suffers from the problem that the eye simply can't focus on objects that close to it. Some sort of projection system or complicated light-focusing arrangement could be a solution, but both of those technologies in a device the size of a contact lens are, again, currently far-fetched. People may also feel a bit squeamish about dropping a television into their eye socket... not to mention placing their emotional well-being in the hands of Hollywood.

The closest we can get to eyeball TV today? Head-mounted displays like the Vuzix line of "video eyewear." Throw in a super-sized Mountain Dew to simulate "the elation of jubilant players" and you're halfway to the future.

Image credit: University of Washington