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"I would say 75% of the economy is now being run by ex-science-fiction fans."
- Greg Bear
 |
| 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." |
| Technovelgy from Fast Times At Fairmont High,
by Vernor Vinge. Published by Tor in 2001 Additional resources -
|
Vinge expands on the idea in his 2006 novel Rainbows End, set in the same milieu:
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:
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) and the messaging lens from All I Care About Is You (2017) by Joe Hill.
"...Robert, you should be wearing. You look silly walking around with that view-page clutched in your hand..."
"Without some control it's like old-time television, but much more intrusive. We wouldn't want you to be hijacked..."
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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
- Harvest Power From Tears And Blinking With Smart Contact Lens
| Did Frank Herbert Predict Bistable Displays Like E-Ink? |
| I Need An Outdoor Spherical Display |
| Outdoor Video Screens Can Be Arbitrarily Large |
| iPhone Air Fulfils Jobs' Promise From 2007 - A Giant Screen! |
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'Our planes are going to start bringing in bales of discarded plastics...'
'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
