Pentagon: Soldiers of the Near Future will Use High Tech Contacts with “Videogame” Readouts

DARPA, the Pentagon’s blue sky science and technology division, see a future in which soldiers will see an information augmented world through contact lenses that provide readouts similar to those in first-person shooters. The agency’s Information Processing Techniques Office has sent out word that it requires plans for “the creation of micro- and nano-scale display technologies for the purpose of creating displays that could be worn as transparent contact lenses.”

DARPA seeks to leap beyond incremental, evolutionary enhancement of head-mounted display technologies to a see-through contact lens on which images can be displayed. This information might be command-and-control information, not unlike information provided to players of first-person, shooter-type videogames or synthetic entities and effects in a live training environment.

What’s most fascinating about this concept is the future that DARPA refers to is only 3-5 years away. University of Washington researchers are already working on a similar project; a “contact lens assembled with functional circuitry and LED.” They already have a prototype lens-embedded antenna that uses radio frequencies to power the gadget.

This is really fascinating stuff here. You can get the full details on Wired.