Self-Assembling Bionic Eyes Coming Soon

Any self-respecting child of the late 20th century would jump at the chance to overlay an electronic stream of information on their field of vision -- but when the idea's gone from science fiction to science, it's usually been more A/V club than Snow Crash.
All that could change: witness a contact lens designed by electrical engineers from the University of Washington and presented yesterday at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international conference on microelectro mechanical systems.
Sporting circuits a few nanometers thick and grain-of-sand-sized light-emitting diodes, the lenses have full Count Zero potential. They're also the product of some ingenious hackery: since contact lenses are delicate and circuit manufacture is hot and toxic, the researchers designed each component to attach itself only to certain other components. Their powder of circuits and diodes literally self-assembled into gadgetry when sprinkled onto the lens plastic.
So how long do geeks have to wait? According to the press release, a stripped-down display with just a few operational pixels could be available "fairly quickly." More complicated lenses will take longer, but for good reason: they'll be wireless-enabled and powered by a combination of radio waves and solar energy.
And while I've framed this post in recreational terms, some potential applications are pretty serious: the lenses might help autistic people enter the world of regular social interaction.

source: www.wired.com