Mojo Vision marks major development milestone for super smart contact lens
Mojo Vision, has made significant headway with its advanced prototype of Mojo Lens, the world’s first smart contact lens, including an array of new, industry-first features.
The company says this prototype is a critical milestone for Mojo in its development, testing and validation process, and is an innovation positioned at the intersection of smartphones, Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality, smart wearables and healthtech. The prototype includes numerous new hardware features and breakthrough technologies embedded directly into the lens – advancing its display, communications, eye tracking, and power system.
Over the past two years, Mojo has also been investing in various software experiences for Mojo Lens. In this new prototype, the company has built foundational operating system code and user experience (UX) components for the first time. The new software will allow for further development and testing of important use cases for consumers and partners.
The company says this new Mojo Lens prototype will further accelerate the development of ‘Invisible Computing’, a next-generation computing experience where information is available and presented only when needed. This eyes-up experience allows users to access timely information quickly and discreetly without forcing them to look down at a screen or lose focus on the people and the world around them.
Mojo has identified initial compelling consumer uses of Invisible Computing for performance athletes and recently announced strategic partnerships with leading sports and fitness brands, such as Adidas Running, to collaborate on eyes-up, hands-free experiences. Mojo has been working with its new partners to find unique ways to improve athletes’ access to in-the-moment data or ‘during data’. This innovative smart contact lens can give athletes a competitive edge, allowing them to stay focused on their workout or training and maximize their performance, without the distraction of traditional wearables.
“Mojo has created advanced foundational technologies and systems that weren’t possible before now. Innovating the new features in the lens is a tremendous amount of work, but successfully bringing them all together into an integrated system in such a small form factor is a considerable achievement in cross-disciplined product development,” said Mike Wiemer, VP of Engineering, CTO and co-founder of Mojo Vision. “We are excited to share our progress and can’t wait to start testing Mojo Lens in real-world scenarios.”
First-of-their-kind innovations
To reach this milestone, Mojo had to invent and develop many of the technologies in the new prototype. The proprietary technologies and first-of-their-kind innovations include: the world’s smallest and densest display for projecting augmented reality imagery, a low latency communications protocol for efficiently streaming visual data, and ultra-precise eye tracking and a unique eye-controlled user interface to access and interact with AR content with just a glance.
Mojo’s industry-first innovations and technologies include:
Smallest, densest display: At the heart of Mojo Lens is their 14,000 pixels per inch MicroLED display. Measuring less than 0.5 mm in diameter with a pixel-pitch of 1.8 microns, it is the world’s smallest and densest display ever created for dynamic content. Paired with a Mojo-designed micro-optic and custom silicon backplane chip, the Mojo display can project bright text, rich graphics and high-resolution video on the wearer’s retina that are visible indoors, outdoors, or even with eyes closed.
Low latency communication: Mojo Vision has custom designed an ASIC for Mojo Lens that incorporates a 5 GHz radio and ARM Core M0 processor that transmits sensor data off the lens and streams Augmented Reality (AR) content to the MicroLED display. The radio is capable of communicating with the ultra-low latency required by AR applications by using a Mojo-proprietary communication protocol that is more efficient and faster than Bluetooth LE.
Ultra-precise eye tracking: A key element of any AR experience is the ability to see and interact with digital content placed within the world around us. Mojo Lens has a custom-configured accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer that continuously track eye movements so that AR imagery is held still as the eyes move. Coupled with proprietary motion-sensing algorithms, Mojo Lens’ eye-tracking is an order of magnitude more precise than today’s leading Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality optical eye-tracking systems and is a key enabler of Mojo’s unique eye-controlled user experience.
Medical-grade power system: Powering Mojo Lens is a proprietary power management system that includes medical-grade micro-batteries and a Mojo-developed power management integrated circuit and wireless recharging componentry. The power system is a critical element of the Mojo Lens and allows Mojo to optimize the final product for all-day wear and to run reliability and safety tests in preparation for FDA clinical trials.
Eye-controlled user experience: To make Invisible Computing a reality, Mojo has unlocked the ultimate hands-free controller – your eyes. Nothing points as quickly or as accurately as your eye gaze, and with the ultra-precise eye tracking of Mojo Lens it is now possible to access and interact with AR content with just a glance. This forms the foundation of a unique and powerful user experience that will be fast, discreet, and effortless.
Exploring use cases and refining Mojo Lens: Mojo Vision says on the Blog that the next step in the development of Mojo Lens is for the company and select partners to begin extensive user testing and analysis, software application prototyping, and overall system and product optimization. In addition to clinical testing on the normally sighted, we will begin clinical evaluations of the lens with individuals that are visually impaired to continue forward with our mission to assist the millions of people that have some form of uncorrectable vision loss.
Since 2019, Mojo Vision has been working with the U.S. FDA through its Breakthrough Devices Program to develop a discreet low vision aid. The Breakthrough Devices Program is a voluntary program designed to provide safe and timely access to medical devices that can help treat irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.
“This latest prototype of Mojo Lens demonstrates major advances in the development of our platform and the goals for our company,” said Drew Perkins, CEO and co-founder of Mojo Vision. “Six years ago, we had a vision for this experience and faced an immense number of design and technology challenges. But we had the expertise and confidence to take them on and have made consistent, breakthrough progress over the years.”
“I’m proud of our entire team for getting us to this stage and excited that we’re closer than ever to getting Mojo Lens to market,” he said.
Mojo Vision, based in Saratoga, CA, has raised more than US$205 million in funding to date from investors.
