Sight and insight - [engineering vision]

Health applications are not the only ideas being investigated for smart contact lenses. Over the past year, technology enthusiasts on the internet have been excitedly blogging about the research of Babak Parviz and colleagues at the University of Washington. These researchers have demonstrated a contact lens that includes an electronic circuit and red light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that are just one-third of a millimetre across. The components are constructed away from the delicate organic materials used for contact lenses and then reconstructed on the lens using self-assembly.