Google Inc. has applied for a patent that details a way to fit a camera into a contact lens.
The patent has to do with the tech giant’s smart contact lens project, first announced this year. With a camera in a contact lens, users could process all kinds of data to be relayed to a connected smartphone.
The patent, which was reported by Patent Bolt, outlines a way Google could fit a camera into a contact lens without drastically increasing its thickness. Such a camera could collect data including light, colors, objects, faces and motion.
That data could be quickly processed and used to provide users with information on a display within the lens. For example, a moving vehicle or the face of a nearby user could be highlighted by the smart lens — think “Terminator” vision.
The camera could also expand users’ eyesight. Patent Bolt said it could give users a wider view or zoom in, like a pair of binoculars.
For users with no eyesight, the smart contact lens with a camera could relay images and data to a connected smartphone. That smartphone could process the data and give the blind user any relevant information. For example, if he or she walked toward an intersection, the phone could sound an audible alert after the contact lens’ camera detected the upcoming road.
Google applied for the patent in late 2012, and it was published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office this month. Companies file for patents left and right, and often the technology does not make it into final products that are sold to consumers.
Google could not be reached for comment.