The human eye is a perceptual powerhouse. It can see millions of colors, adjust easily to shifting light conditions, and transmit information to the brain at a rate exceeding that of a high-speed Internet connection.

人類的眼睛具有非常強大的功能，他可以分辨數以百萬計的顏色，調整各種光線條件，並超快速且有效率地把各種信息經由神經網路傳送到大腦

But why stop there?

In the Terminator movies, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character sees the world with data superimposed on his visual field—virtual captions that enhance the cyborg’s scan of a scene. In stories by the science fiction author Vernor Vinge, characters rely on electronic contact lenses, rather than smartphones or brain implants, for seamless access to information that appears right before their eyes.

在電影「魔鬼終結者」，主角阿諾史瓦辛格的眼前有許多虛擬的數據及圖像不斷地疊加在他的視野裡；作者弗諾文奇的科幻小說裡，就是依靠電子隱形眼鏡，而不是智慧型手機或是大腦植入物，讓眼睛持續地捕捉訊息並傳送到大腦。

These visions (if I may) might seem far-fetched, but a contact lens with simple built-in electronics is already within reach; in fact, my students and I are already producing such devices in small numbers in my laboratory at the University of Washington, in Seattle [see sidebar, "A Twinkle in the Eye"]. These lenses don’t give us the vision of an eagle or the benefit of running subtitles on our surroundings yet. But we have built a lens with one LED, which we’ve powered wirelessly with RF. What we’ve done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology.

這些願景如果要馬上實現似乎有點牽強，但是隱形眼鏡內置簡單的電路裝置已經指日可待，實際上，我和我的學生們現在已經小量地在生產這種裝置，在我們位於華盛頓大學的實驗室裡；我們建立了一個鏡頭，採用了一些LED以及無線射頻技術，這些都暗示著在不久後我們可以利用這項技術。

Conventional contact lenses are polymers formed in specific shapes to correct faulty vision. To turn such a lens into a functional system, we integrate control circuits, communication circuits, and miniature antennas into the lens using custom-built optoelectronic components. Those components will eventually include hundreds of LEDs, which will form images in front of the eye, such as words, charts, and photographs. Much of the hardware is semitransparent so that wearers can navigate their surroundings without crashing into them or becoming disoriented. In all likelihood, a separate, portable device will relay displayable information to the lens’s control circuit, which will operate the optoelectronics in the lens.

要製造這樣的東西並讓他們成為一個系統，需要集控制電路、通訊電路和微型天線於一身，並運用定做的光電器件。這些組件將包含數百條發光二極管，這將是造成圖像顯示在眼睛前面的關鍵；大部分的硬體組件都呈半透明，配戴者可以看清楚周圍的環境，而不會迷失方向。

These lenses don’t need to be very complex to be useful. Even a lens with a single pixel could aid people with impaired hearing or be incorporated as an indicator into computer games. With more colors and resolution, the repertoire could be expanded to include displaying text, translating speech into captions in real time, or offering visual cues from a navigation system. With basic image processing and Internet access, a contact-lens display could unlock whole new worlds of visual information, unfettered by the constraints of a physical display.

這些東西並不需要非常複雜，他們是有益的，他們可以幫助聽力受損的人，或是被納入電腦遊戲裝置的一項指標，隨著更多的顏色和分辨率的提高，進而可以擴大到顯示一整個文件，或是提供溝通時的即時翻譯字幕，或提供視覺線索、導航系統；基本的圖像處理可以跟網路連接，我們可以開啟全新視覺訊息獲取管道，而不受物裡限制。

Besides visual enhancement, noninvasive monitoring of the wearer’s biomarkers and health indicators could be a huge future market. We’ve built several simple sensors that can detect the concentration of a molecule, such as glucose. Sensors built onto lenses would let diabetic wearers keep tabs on blood-sugar levels without needing to prick a finger. The glucose detectors we’re evaluating now are a mere glimmer of what will be possible in the next 5 to 10 years. Contact lenses are worn daily by more than a hundred million people, and they are one of the only disposable, mass-market products that remain in contact, through fluids, with the interior of the body for an extended period of time. When you get a blood test, your doctor is probably measuring many of the same biomarkers that are found in the live cells on the surface of your eye—and in concentrations that correlate closely with the levels in your bloodstream. An appropriately configured contact lens could monitor cholesterol, sodium, and potassium levels, to name a few potential targets. Coupled with a wireless data transmitter, the lens could relay information to medics or nurses instantly, without needles or laboratory chemistry, and with a much lower chance of mix-ups.

除了視覺加強之外，監測使用者生理狀態的功能在未來也可能是一個巨大的市場，我們已經建立幾個簡單的傳感器，可以檢測出一個分子的濃度，例如葡萄糖。傳感器內建的顯示器能讓患有糖尿病的配戴者隨時監測血糖濃度，而不需要刺破手指。關於葡萄糖檢測器，我們正在評估有可能在未來５～１０年內出現。