Could Augmented Reality Contact Lenses Help with Power Restoration?
This might seem like something from a science fiction movie, but a California-based startup company is currently developing augmented reality contact lenses! As soon as I learned about this, my mind immediately went to how this technology could be leveraged in an outage restoration situation.
How Augmented Reality Contact Lenses Might Improve Restoration Effectiveness
First, it’s important to differentiate between augmented reality and virtual reality. What we’re talking about here is NOT virtual reality, which is essentially an immersion into a computer-generated simulation. Game-playing using an Oculus VR headset, or living in The Matrix, are two examples of virtual reality.
Augmented reality, on the other hand, visually overlays useful information about your actual surroundings via computer-generated video or text. For example, a menu might visually render for a restaurant you are walking past. This technology might be built into eyeglasses, goggles, helmets, and now, even contact lenses.
Mojo Vision is the startup developing the augmented reality contact lenses. While the company’s mission is to help people with “low vision” (e.g., glaucoma, macular degeneration, etc.) I can see many possible use cases.
The company astoundingly figured out how to embed a millimeter-scale “micro-LED” display directly onto contact lenses. An advanced image chip connected to image processing circuits determines what gets displayed. The technology can zoom in and out, is programmable, and also offers a nice bag of tricks that can be employed to enhance visual clarity. All in all, it’s pretty impressive given that the small size of the lenses presents severe design constraints.
Truth be told, augmented reality contact lenses are not yet ready for prime time, but the technology already exists in other devices. I would think that eyeglasses or goggles would be most appropriate for utility emergency response.
I can envision the technology receiving data from SCADA, OMS, GIS and other internal systems. I could see it being useful for damage assessors, who when viewing a damaged piece of equipment could be presented with relevant information about it in real time, such as model, age, maintenance or repair history, to enable an immediate diagnosis and ability to immediately request the parts needed to make the repair.
The technology might also be useful to:
- Help navigation when visibility is low
- Provide advance notice of dangerous debris or hazards
- Provide step-by-step instructions when needed
- Produce technical information on demand
And those examples are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The bottom line is that, although augmented reality contact lenses may never be a strong option for utility operations, similar technology embedded into more practical devices are likely to be the wave of the future. Time will tell!
