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"I am first of all not a science fiction writer … I write, I suppose, what the Latin Americans call magic realism."
- Harlan Ellison

Smart Contact Lenses  
  Contact lenses that have a built-in computer display.  

In the tomorrow explored in this novella, wearable computers display data right before your eyes.

"What really makes it possible?"

Juan squinted at him. "My contact lenses? Smart clothes?" Certainly the lens displays would be useless without a wearable computer to do the graphics.

"That's just the final output device."

From Fast Times At Fairmont High, by Vernor Vinge.
Published by Not known in 2001
Additional resources -

Vinge expands on the idea in his 2006 novel Rainbows End, set in the same milieu:

"...Robert, you should be wearing. You look silly walking around with that view-page clutched in your hand..."

Miri... leaned her head forward, and stuck a finger close to her right eye. "You already know about contacts, right? Wanna see one?" Her hand came away from her eye. A tiny disk sat on the tip of her middle finger. It was the size and shape of the contact lenses he had known. He hadn't expected more, but... he bent closed and looked. After a moment, he realized that it was not quite a clear lens. Speckles of colored brightness swirled and gathered in it. "I'm driving it at safety max, or you wouldn't see the lights." The tiny lens became hazy, then frosty white. "Uk. It powered down. But you get the idea.."

If you think that this form of display is a bit intrusive, you're right. As one character remarks in Rainbows End:

"Without some control it's like old-time television, but much more intrusive. We wouldn't want you to be hijacked..."

You'd need to go back a ways to find the earliest use of this kind of idea. Try the retinal vid-screen from Philip K. Dick's 1954 story Sales Pitch.

Compare to DreamTime Scleral Contact Lenses from The California Voodoo Game (1992) by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes).

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Fast Times At Fairmont High
  More Ideas and Technology by Vernor Vinge
  Tech news articles related to Fast Times At Fairmont High
  Tech news articles related to works by Vernor Vinge

Smart Contact Lenses-related news articles:
  - Smart Contact Lenses Charges With 3D Printed Antenna
  - Vernor Vinge Smart Contact Lens On Wired
  - Augmented Reality Humanoid Robot U-Tsu-Shi-O-Mi
  - Circuit Smart Contact Lens, Presaged By Niven, Barnes and Vinge
  - Samsung Patent For Smart Contact Lens Camera Granted
  - The Mojo Smart Contact Lens Experience

Articles related to Display
Augmented Reality Book Covers Reveal The Inner Book
TCL CSOT 17-Inch Printed OLED Scrolling Display
Looking Glass Display Good Enough For Science Fiction, Fantasy
LG Wing Twisting Smartphone Might Be Fun

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