1y ago

Scientists invent micrometers-thin battery charged by saline solution that could power smart contact lenses

techxplore.com Scientists invent micrometers-thin battery charged by saline solution that could power smart contact lenses

Scientists from NTU Singapore have developed a flexible battery as thin as a human cornea, which stores electricity when it is immersed in saline solution, and which could one day power smart contact lenses.

Scientists invent micrometers-thin battery charged by saline solution that could power smart contact lenses::Scientists from NTU Singapore have developed a flexible battery as thin as a human cornea, which stores electricity when it is immersed in saline solution, and which could one day power smart contact lenses.

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38 comments

Who doesn't want everything you see to be recorded, all while getting an ad overlay directly over your eyes?
- this type of technology could be revolutionary and restoring people's eyesight as well
  
  How? Bionic ocular implants already exist. A contact lens is not going to be able to restore sight to the blind.
  
  perhaps not to the totally blind but to those that have degenerative diseases contact lenses absolutely can help
  
  I could see some cool military applications for this too.
  
  Now you can see your friends dying in the next room, instead of just hearing it!
  Or if it’s only a map, now you can see how surrounded your unit is!
  This is valuable tactical data, surely it won’t cause any morale issues.
  
  It’s true. All new inventions have a morality issue to them. And those moralities need to be weighed heavily before implementing them.
  But it can also be used to guide a secluded operative back to his troop. It can be used to detect road mines that otherwise would have exploded.
  New technology is just a tool. It’s the people choosing how to use it that makes it moral/immoral.
  
  You're not wrong, but the prior comment references "morale issues" which is different from "moral issues" or morality in general. The former is about the troops feeling of well-being and optimism (morale) and the latter is about ethics and right vs wrong (morality).
  
  Heh my bad. Thanks
  
  Listen, all I’m saying is if I was surrounded by enemy combatants on all sides, I wouldn’t want to have to see that while getting shot at.
  Also wouldn’t want to see a fellow soldier get gunned down in a little twitch.tv window in my eye while I’m trying to clear a room.
  I’d call that a major distraction. And distractions in combat get people killed when otherwise they might have lived.
  Maybe smart contacts would have some use for NCOs, even then, a tablet or something with the same info would be just as useful and less likely to block vision. Giving it to everybody would just cause panic and confusion on a battlefield.
  
  Contacts? Don’t you need to see for them to help
  
  Some “blind” people do have data coming in, it’s just so blurry/skewed that it’s worthless. It might be possible to fix this but it would be a case by case basis and likely very expensive. Not all blindness is a world of black
  
  Even totally blind people can usually detect light as painful, slightly less dark darkness. That's actually why so many wear dark sunglasses
- While pouring salt into your eyes to power it!
  
  Saline is what you are supposed to wash your eyes out with when you get something in them in addition to being what contacts are stored in every night
  
  Saline is isotonic and, short of a large electrolyte imbalance, shouldn't cause any/very little irritation to your eyes. And if you're hyponatremic to the point of saline solution causing eye irritation, you have much more immediate and life threatening problems to attend to than risnsing your peepers out

38 comments