Mojo Vision contact lenses show a new future ahead

Game features, working process, product user manuals and any daily activity can be impacted by a device that enables augmented reality like super-hero’s power

Edson Perin

A start-up called Mojo Vision has developed prototypes for contact lenses that enable people to see augmented reality images as overlays on the real world. Mojo has teamed up with Menicon, Japan’s largest and oldest maker of contact lenses, to further development of the product, which is not being sold yet.

The smart contact lens has a tiny built-in display that lets you view augmented reality images on a screen sitting right on your eyeballs (click to watch the demo video in English). “It’s a development agreement, and it could turn into a commercial agreement,” said Mike Wiemer, Mojo Vision chief technology officer. “I’m very excited to work with them [referring to Menicon].”

Under the joint-development agreement, the two companies will work on various feasibility studies on production and manufacturing, exploring a potential long-term working relationship as Mojo tries to commercialize the technology.

Click to watch how Mojo Vision contact lenses work

Mojo Vision is developing Mojo Lens, which it calls the first true smart contact lens. Nagoya, Japan-based Menicon claims to be the only company in the world dedicated to all areas of contact lens-related business, including material development, lens designing, rigid gas permeable lens technology, manufacturing of lenses, and care solutions.

Areas of collaboration will center around contact lens materials, cleaning, and fitting, among other topics. Menicon, led by president Hidenari Tanaka, has been making contact lenses for 70 years, and it has more than 1,400 employees. Wiemer said that Menicon has volumes of research on things such as coatings for contact lenses and how devices interact with the human body.

“These are the challenges for us,” Wiemer said. “We have to get our teams to work together.” Mojo Lens overlays monochrome images, symbols, and text on users’ natural fields of vision without obstructing their view, restricting mobility, or hindering social interactions.

Mojo is actively working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through its Breakthrough Devices Program, a voluntary program designed to provide safe and timely access to medical devices that can help treat irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.

In April 2020, Mojo announced it had raised more than $51 million in a funding round, and it has raised $159 million to date. The company has more than 100 employees. Financial terms of the agreement are not being disclosed. Wiemer said his company is developing relationships with most of the major contact lens companies, and that the company is working on a new prototype more advanced than the one it showed in January 2020.

The huge innovation must bring a new vision to Game features, working process, product user manuals, any daily activity, and much more. Lots of new applications can be seen and provide new kinds of interaction by a contact lens with embedded super-hero’s power.

Edson Perin is the editor of the IoP Journal and founder of Netpress Books.

- PUBLICIDADE -