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Liquid Crystal Contacts

Motion!
  (+13, -2)(+13, -2)
(+13, -2)
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These novelty contact lenses bring the added dimension of motion to your ocular decoration. Tiny liquid crystal spots in the lens around the pupil run through a preprogrammed sequence. Options include the swirling Hypnotist, the Mandala with rotating sunburst, Pulsing Pupil, in which the pupils appear to dilate to enormous size then shrink back down, and the Octopus, with wriggling pupillary tentacles.
bungston, Jul 30 2005

Howstuffworks: Liquid Crystals, LCD's http://electronics....fworks.com/lcd1.htm
[half, Jul 31 2005]


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Annotation:







       the middle bit remains clear then?   

       hmmmm, interesting.
po, Jul 30 2005
  

       Could all the electronic palaver be organised so it could safely sit on your eyeball?
pooduck, Jul 30 2005
  

       Power source?
waugsqueke, Jul 30 2005
  

       not sure how to vote, if a power source is needed, could electrolytes in the tears be enough?   

       battery acid eye drops, ahhhhhhh!
dentworth, Jul 30 2005
  

       //Power source// Embedded induction loops, powered by coils hidden discreetly in the matching spectacle frames.
D'oh!
AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jul 30 2005
  

       Dunno about the power source. There are little liquid crystal thermometers the size of a postage stamp, to stick on kid's heads. What powers them?
bungston, Jul 31 2005
  

       Dunno about the power source. There are little liquid crystal thermometers the size of a postage stamp, to stick on kid's heads. What powers them?   

       As regards electronic palaver, those "enhancer" contacts are actually fairly thick, as contacts go. I think it could fit.
bungston, Jul 31 2005
  

       The little thermometer that stick on kid's heads aren't powered by anything. The crystals morph at a certain temperature, so they could be said to be heat-powered, possibly. But it's more like freezing and thawing than anything else.   

       Which gets us the 'how' that was left out of this wish. Make the lenses out of liquid crystal that morphs at average eye-ball temperature. When the eyes are open, the lens cools and appears one color/pattern, when the eyes are closed, the lens heats up and changes to the other pattern, which can be seen when the eyes first open, slowly dissolving to the cool pattern.   

       That method would probably be subject to a lot of variables, but it has a chance of working. Without something like that, this post is a WIBNI wish. Which gets a fishbone from me, automatically.   

       Relatedly: most novelty contact lenses presently for sale are not made by reputable firms. They are not smooth, sterile or safe. Given their popularity, the LCD lenses could probably be powered by jumper cables clamped to the eyeball.
baconbrain, Aug 01 2005
  

       Good idea.   

       On the power source issue (thinking back over 20 years to yr 9 physics, so apologies for vagueness and possible inaccuracies) LCD doesnt use a current to work, indeed just a positive and negative terminal to align the crystals. That's why watch batteries last such a long time, until you need to use the light, or alarm too much, as they don't actually draw power to show the display, the battery works until it just dies of old age.   

       Not sure what the practical answer is, still, however it does mean it could work without the horror of frying your eyeballs
lagerdalek, Aug 01 2005
  

       I like the idea, as for the power source if the front side of the contact is setup as the positive and and backside the negative. Then the contact is coated in a thin positively charged electrolytic gel on the front therefore creating a battery with the eye being the cathode. The coating could be replenised with some sort of eye drops mentioned before.   

       Also, using small nano magnets aligned to spin within nano coils, everytime the user blinks he/she spins the magnets creating a current, which powers the lcd's. These would however be hellishly exspensive and insanely difficult to manufacture on a large scale.
AbyssUK, Aug 01 2005
  

       Why not solar power? Whenever your eyes are open at least some photons will flow through the lenses. Might make it hard to see in the dark, as some of the photons would be absorbed. But might provide the needed power.
KaGe2021, Aug 01 2005
  


 

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