Penelope Andujar
May 23,2018
Communication In Society
GoLens: The Future Of Wearable Tech
Wearable technology has been in our lives for a few years now. From the beeper to the Apple Watch, we have basically surrendered our lives to technology. While our phones, glasses and watches are designed to make our lives easier and make us more efficient, do the tech we walk around with hold us down? We communicate with the world through these small phone and watches but what if we can make that even smaller. Take networking as an example it is a big part of life, what if I tell you that you can send an email, video chat, and lock and unlock your home door without your while you’re out for a jog. I am here to introduce the future of wearable tech: the GoLens.
You might ask yourself, “Is she trying to sell me those ugly Google Lens?” The answer No I am not trying to sell anything, I am showing you a new easier, efficient and more hands free way of life that can also bring some health benefits as well. The GoLens are contact lens that work as well if not better than a smartphone. The GoLens has a numerous amount of features for example it can track your heart rate, track your workouts,check emails, answer phone calls, google things for you, set alarms and reminders, lock and unlock doors, check social media apps, take pictures and ANYTHING YOU CAN IMAGINE! Now you may think “didn’t Google try to make contacts too”
Google Contact Lens was announced in 2014, they wanted the contact lens to work for the needs of diabetes. The contacts would measure the person’s blood sugar level by their tears using a tiny antenna that would send the data to an app on their smartphone. Although these contacts were a good idea, they failed because it has not been proven that tears are as effective as measuring glucose from blood. This product, Google Glass, and Virtual reality headsets paved the way to the invention of the GoLens.
Before the Google contact lens, they made the Google Glass. It was design to be a hands free way to do all the things your phone can do. Google released this product in 2013, which cost $1500 for one pair. However while this product caught very few people’s attentions it still became yet another fail from Google. The product’s failure was due to how Google’s marketing time did not do enough to show their audience why they NEED these glasses. According to this article from Business2community.com there was no clear function for these glasses, they mention that the glasses only had two real functions to capture pictures and have the internet at a glance. Now looking at it from a consumer point of view is $1500 really necessary for an item that only really does two things. As I mentioned before the failure for this product also lies in the terrible marketing. When these glasses came out they were sold online and only to “Google explorers” and those who bought it only received and early adaptation of the product. Also these glasses were aesthetically unappealing, people are walking around looking like stereotypical nerds. Proudly showing how people should NOT spend their money.
GoLens is the next big thing because it takes the features of the Google Contacts and the Google Glass and puts them together with a lot more additional features as well. I believe that we will see these lenses in the very near future. According to an article fromSammobile.com Google has already patent with South Korea to install small cameras in their contact lenses. The article states that the “contact lens equipped with a tiny display, a camera, an antenna, and several sensors that detect movement and the most basic form of input using your eyes: blinking. The display projects images directly into the eye of the wearer. An external device, a smartphone, is needed for processing.” Their goal is to get these lenses closer to the quality of the smart glasses.
Virtual Reality is another phenomenon that has come to light. Virtual Reality headsets are used to transport users in to any virtual world they want to be in. An example would be while watching a documentary on television is satisfying, imagine how much better it would be if you were in the documentary. The headsets allow you to step into your favorite movie or game as if it was real life. My first glimpse of the VR headsets were during the release of the Galaxy note 4, you were able to attach your phone to it and see everything on your phone as if you were in it. One aspect of the VR headsets that I found interesting is its use in healthcare. Medicine is known for using technology as a way to help treat or eliminate illness or conditions. The VR headsets are now being used to do precisely that, there have been clients and labs that use these tools for exposure therapy, they allow the patients to deal with their fears and phobias head on in a controlled environment. They apply the coping strategies to patients with PTSD. They allow the patient to practice coping strategies for real-life situations and if the VR becomes too much for them to handle it is easy removed or paused as opposed to real life. Medical training is also being helped by these VR headsets, rather than having a medical student help a more experienced doctor during a surgery and put the patient in risk they are having these student practice in virtual reality. Although this has to be the coolest thing in my opinion that has come out, it also has a lot of negative signs. According to an article on livescience.com there are many side effects to the constant use of these headsets. Cybersickness and brain shut down are the biggest, the article explains that it’s same sickness some people feel when they are watching 3D movies. They go into detail on how the sickness happens, your brain in the real world is receiving input from multiple places and they are all in agreement in other words they all align. As opposed to the virtual world where your brain is expected to have everything in sync and it does not. The second major issue is the brain shut down, they conducted a study that shows that some neurons in the brain shut down after continuous use of the headset. While there are some neurons that do not completely shut down they show signs of unusual activity. They recommend that children under the age of 13 do not use these products because they do not yet know the long-term effects that it has on the brain. Eyestrain has also been linked as one of the side effects due to the screens light being so close to your eyes.
How do these products pave the way for the GoLens? That’s easy. My team and I have taken all the good parts of these products and combined them. The future in my eyes is a world where you can take care of your daily tasks without the need of a phone or heavy devices. We take the camera and the internet function from the Google Glass, we take the medical benefits from both the VR headsets and Google Contact lenses like allowing color blind people see color as well as distributing medicine in order to correct your vision. As oppose to Google we do not give up that easily, we are working on finding an effective way to measure glucose levels through the contacts as well as distributing different medications one might need depending on their health conditions. With our lenses you will never have to keep track of your medical records, just with an eye scan doctors will be able to see your whole medical history.We will also be working on having the lenses read your vital signs. Safety is also our priority! If ever faced in a dangerous situation your contacts lenses will alert the police, give them your location as well as record everything that is happening around for evidence. Copies of the recordings are sent to your email as well as to the police. You will never have to worry about getting robbed for your new high tech contacts because unlike Google Glass or Apple watch no one can see that you have them.
GoLens are going to be the first wearable tech to completely delete smart phones from the world. Instead of the world being in the palm of your hand it is in a blink of an eye. Also for those who have no need for contact lenses, we will have color contacts with without prescriptions. Our jobs,our social lives, and health all in one place without having to carry anything but your contacts. GoLens: The world in front of you in a blink of an eye.
Reference
- Carson , Erin . “10 ways virtual reality is revolutionizing medicine and healthcare.” Tech Republic , 2015, www.techrepublic.com/article/10-ways-virtual-reality-is-revolutionizing-medicine-and-healthcare/.
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- Contributor, External. “What Happened to the Plans for a Smart Contact Lens for Diabetics?” Labiotech.eu, Labiotech UG, 25 Jan. 2018, labiotech.eu/contact-lens-glucose-diabetes/.
- Chalupa, Andrea. “Forget Google Glasses: Our ‘Smart Phones’ Will Soon Be Contact Lenses.” Big Think, Big Think, 19 Apr. 2012, bigthink.com/think-tank/forget-google-glasses-our-smart-phones-will-soon-be-contact-lenses.
- “5 Reasons Why Google Glass Was a Miserable Failure.” Business 2 Community, Business 2 Community, www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/5-reasons-google-glass-miserable-failure-01462398.
