If any of you have ever played a game like EVE where you can input lots of augmentations into your character to give them special skills then this story will remind you of that. Reports have revealed that the Pentagon has put in a large order of prototype contact lenses for America’s troops.
These contact lenses are supposedly going to enhance the wearer’s field of vision. Furthermore, they are supposed to be worn with compact head-up (HUD) glasses which allow images to be projected on to them.
Now it sounds like we are firmly in the middle of a video game as next we should be expecting to have a health bar on these glasses. But basically the whole setup is designed to increase troop awareness on the battlefield.
As for the lenses themselves, why are they so different? The answer is that unlike conventional lenses they allow the wearer to focus on more than one thing at once due to the specially attached inner and outer filters.
This will allow troops to focus on the images projected on to the glasses and on objects in the distance, so they won’t be desperately dodging bullets whilst trying to read what some distant geek is writing on their glasses. In short, if you are wearing them then you can do things humans can’t usually do.
The glasses may even be able to be sold to the public in the future, according to the Chief Executive of Innovega Steve Willey. Although, doesn’t that kind of reduce the potency of these glasses when it comes to the military if anyone can just go down to Currys and buy them?
But anyway, apparently these devices will be available to the general public by 2014. Expect the games industry to take full advantage of this, as well as the film industry which could use something original and interesting; and 3D is not original or interesting.
However, the issue is that this could apparently cause motion sickness in some people. So whilst it might be a cool and futuristic device, it will need some perfecting before it can just be thrown into battle or used by the general public. Remember, if it isn’t perfected then there will be some idiot who walks down the street with these glasses and then ends up walking into traffic.
