The prototype for a smart contact lens points to a future where "just about any object" can connect to the internet, "even disposable ones," said Tom Simonite at TechnologyReview.com. Shyam Gollakota, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, demonstrated a Wi-Fi-connected contact lens last month at MIT to showcase a new technology dubbed "backscatter."
Gollakota's method allows devices without batteries to communicate and power themselves by harvesting and recycling signals from Wi-Fi devices or radio and TV stations. Gollakota and his grad students have also created a skin patch that can sense temperature and respiration, and a concert poster that broadcasts snippets of a band's music over FM radio. Gollakota said his startup, Jeeva Wireless, is in talks with a large drug company about adding wireless connectivity to disposable medical products.
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