Sony Patents Advanced Camera Contact Lens

According to CNBC Sony filed application for a patent that will allow users to use a contact lens type camera module which could be controlled by intentional blinking.

So what is behind Sony’s patent? well, the concept is pretty simple (in theory at least) a contact lens like device will be used on the eye by the user who will be able to activate it using things such as blinking. The technology will known how to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary blinking and take a picture only when a voluntary blinking is registered.

Unlike somewhat similar patents applications by other companies including Google, the Sony patent seems to be more focused on photography, with mechanisms for changing aperture, zoom, focus and a way to perform image stabilization and transfer images to a mobile device.

Image from the patent application by Sony

This is all just a patent at this stage (or maybe something which is deep in the secret labs of Sony) and it will probably not be until early in the next decade before we shall see an actual product based on this technology (if at all), but the idea of capturing an image with a blink of the eye is indeed inciting (and with that said – just remember how much bad publicity a much more visible photographic tool like the Google Glass got for invading privacy…).

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Iddo Genuth

Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.