Time.news – A team of researchers at the Ulsan National University of Science and Technology (UNIST) has developed an innovative technology for smart contact lenses that can implement navigation based on augmented reality (AR) through 3D printing. This result was published in February 2023 in the scientific journal Science Advanced and was led by Professor Im Doo Jung of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UNIST and Dr Seung Kwon Seol of the Smart 3D Printing research team at the Research Institute of Korea Electrotechnology (KERI).
With the advent of the Metaverse era, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies are expected to can improve the convenience in daily life, as well as the productivity of industry. However, existing AR devices have some disadvantages, such as high price, experimental technology and bulky appearance that hinder their commercialization.
On the contrary, smart contact lenses offer the benefits of being convenient and economical, as they can be worn inside a person’s eye like a normal contact lens. The use of energy-efficient electrochromic materials, such as Prussian blue (PB), has been identified as a viable solution for fabricating AR contact lens displays.
However, the PB micro-patterning on the contact lens has been identified as a technical problem to overcome. To address this issue, the research team developed a simple and effective printing strategy to produce PB micro-patterns using a meniscus-driven ferric-acid-ferricianide investigation composed of FeCl3, K3Fe(CN)6 and HCl.
Furthermore, the research team successfully demonstrated how AR-based navigation works by realizing a PB-based EC display in a smart contact lens. The device was able to display real-time driving directions on the AR contact lens, receiving the user’s GPS coordinates. The technology developed by the UNIST research team opens new perspectives for the development of AR contact lenses with low energy consumption and affordable EC displays.
Their method of printing PB micro-patterns represents a major breakthrough in the realization of functional devices with electrochromic PB micro-patterns. Their technology has been recognized as excellent by the academic community and has been featured on the cover of Advanced Science journal.