A contact lens with metallic, silicon and compound semiconductor structures embedded in it. Photo by Univ. of Washington

Previous versions have been successfully tested on animals for safety but the bionic contact lenses were not ready for testing on animals while turned on until now, said Babak Parviz, who is working on the project with his team at the University of Washington in Seattle. Parviz presented the latest findings as part of NASA's lecture series at the Langley Research Center in Virginia on Tuesday.

“Very recently we've been able to put some sensors on the contact lenses,” said Parviz, an associate professor of electrical engineering. “Right now we're testing the sensitivity and activity of these sensors.”

Through nanotechnology advancements, Parviz's team is developing ways to integrate small optical, electronic and biosensing devices into the lens surface that would equip contact lenses with health monitoring and information display capabilities.

Designs remain in the infant stages. The contact lenses cannot display full images but only a pixel. However, the team has been able to put a light source, radio and antenna together, as well as power the light source wirelessly via radio waves.

A number of technological obstacles is present, including creating batteries to power the contact lenses and developing security to protect transmitted information. Successful models may likely resemble the feel of conventional hard contact lenses and require monthly disposal. The image display would be semitransparent so a user does not become distracted by information during activities such as driving. 

Parviz said the days when contact lenses can show full images in a user's field of vision and send information wirelessly to a doctor's e-mail are in the distant future, but current progress shows endless possibilities.

“You can have a fairly radical device that measures someone's health without actually going inside the body,” he said. “You may watch TV, work on a computer or laptop... but at the end of the day you may not actually need any of them if you have something on your eye that can show you images.”

Parviz, who wears contact lenses, acknowledged the cost to build bionic ones is pricey and difficult to assess now. Some funding has come from the National Science Foundation and Microsoft.

Reach reporter Len Ly here.