Intersection cross-cut: contact-lens ∩ sensor-camera-eye
Axes: form_factor × sensors
4 corpus entries disclose both tags.
Earliest disclosure: 2006
These entries are the direct inputs to OBVIOUSNESS_TEMPLATE.md. Any patent claim combining these two elements is anticipated or rendered obvious by the chain below.
Rainbows End AR contact lenses and ‘wearing’ (2006)
- id:
rainbows-end-ar-contact-lens - corpus: fictional
- form factor: contact-lens
- creator: Vernor Vinge
- disclosure: Vinge, Vernor. Rainbows End. Tor Books, 2006 — augmented-reality contact lenses plus clothing-integrated compute (‘wearing’), with gaze and gesture control, persistent shared overlays, view-sharing, and a developer ecosystem of competing AR platforms.
- ip status: fictional
- sensors: sensor-camera-eye, sensor-camera-rgb
- algorithms: algo-eye-gaze-tracking
- prior art notes: Among the most specific fictional anticipations of modern AR eyewear: discloses (a) AR contact lenses rendering registered overlays, (b) clothing-integrated computing and sensing as the host platform, (c) gaze tracking and subtle gesture as the primary input modality, (d) multi-user shared/synchronized overlays and view-sharing, and (e) an open developer ecosystem with competing AR layers. Relevant to AR-contact-lens claims, gaze-controlled AR claims, and shared/collaborative-AR claims. § 103 motivation, circa 2006, toward essentially the entire modern AR-eyewear feature set. Non-enabling on optics and power; pair with enabling contact-lens-display and low-power-display art.
Pandey et al. (2010) — ‘A fully integrated RF-powered contact lens’ (the disclosure root of ambient-RF-powered wearables) (2010)
- id:
pandey-2010-rf-powered-contact-lens - corpus: academic
- form factor: contact-lens
- creator: Jagdish Pandey / Yu-Te Liao / Andrew Lingley / Ramin Mirjalili / Babak Parviz / Brian Otis (University of Washington)
- disclosure: Pandey J, Liao Y-T, Lingley A, Mirjalili R, Parviz B, Otis BP. ‘A fully integrated RF-powered contact lens with a single element display.’ IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems 2010;4(6):454-461. (Inductive RF power harvesting at sub-microwatt budget on a custom CMOS IC integrated onto a contact lens, driving a single-pixel display, with bidirectional wireless data.)
- ip status: public-domain
- sensors: sensor-camera-eye
- prior art notes: The canonical academic disclosure of a complete RF-powered wearable system on a contact lens: ambient-RF energy harvesting + custom sub-microwatt CMOS + integrated single-pixel display + bidirectional wireless data, all on a soft contact-lens substrate. Foundational prior art for any wearable claim reciting ‘an ambient-RF-powered sub-microwatt CMOS system on a body-worn substrate’ — covers not just contact-lens claims but the broader ambient-RF-powered wearable system architecture (applies to smart rings, hearables, patches, implants). Pair with later follow-ons by the same group and Pourshaban et al. for the dual-mode harvesting variant ([[pourshaban-2024-dual-mode-contact-lens-harvester]]).
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol — contact-lens camera and document scanner (2011-12-16)
- id:
mi-ghost-protocol-contact-lens-camera - corpus: fictional
- form factor: contact-lens
- creator: Brad Bird / Paramount Pictures
- disclosure: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Paramount Pictures), released December 16, 2011; contact lenses that capture imagery on a deliberate double-blink, store and wirelessly transmit it, and scan documents for relay to a body-worn printer.
- ip status: fictional
- sensors: sensor-camera-rgb, sensor-camera-eye
- prior art notes: Discloses a corneal contact lens incorporating an image sensor, triggered by an intentional eyelid gesture (double-blink), with on-lens or near-body storage and wireless transmission of the captured imagery. Relevant to contact-lens claims combining ‘a contact lens’, ‘an image sensor’, ‘a blink-detection trigger’, and ‘wireless transmission of captured images’. § 103 motivation that the camera-bearing, blink-triggered contact lens was an articulated objective by 2011. Non-enabling on lens-scale optics/power; pair with enabling contact-lens-electronics art.
XPANCEO smart contact lens (2024) — Dubai-based AR/biosensor contact lens project (2022)
- id:
xpanceo-ar-contact-lens-2024 - corpus: private
- form factor: contact-lens
- creator: XPANCEO (founders: Roman Axelrod, Dr. Valentyn Volkov)
- disclosure: XPANCEO (Dubai, UAE). Smart contact lens project — founded 2021, public demonstrations at CES 2024 / 2025; raised >US$40M to date across multiple rounds; demonstrated working prototypes integrating tunable optics, image projection, eye-tracking, and biochemical sensing within a soft contact lens. The most active contact-lens player as of 2026 in the wake of Mojo Vision’s pivot. https://xpanceo.com
- ip status: patented
- sensors: sensor-camera-eye
- prior art notes: Discloses ongoing development of a smart contact lens integrating an embedded display, eye/gaze tracking, and biochemical sensing on a soft ophthalmic contact lens, with substantial venture funding and CES demos. Even without a shipped product, the public demos and disclosures constitute prior art as of 2024 against subsequent contact-lens claims. Complements [[mojo-vision-ar-contact-lens-2022]] (the previous AR-lens project that paused) and [[sensimed-triggerfish-iop-contact-lens-2009]] (the only commercially-shipped smart contact lens).