Great idea! Err... maybe not.

As a tech guy, I'm generally attracted by new, shiny things, even while they're still in development. As an engineering type, I immediately consider how useful the new, shiny thing can be, and pick out any glaring problems with the idea. Rarely, the engineer in me shouts down the tech in me... this is one of those times. Somebody's working on adding circuitry to contact lenses, to allow image overlays on the real world... think heads-up display without any obvious equipment, that sort of thing. Here's a link to an article about the current work.

So, cool idea, augmented reality and all that, maybe a neat gaming interface... but then there's the problems I see. Start with the basic interface... it's light-emitting, but inside your eyelids, so there's no way to get away from it, short of removing the things from your eyes. Also, if you wanted to be able to read text, your software has to track your eyeballs and head motions to match up what you see in the lenses with what you see of the world outside, unless you want a truly hurl-inducing experience.

Suppose you take care of those problems... it's still a powered circuit on your eyeball, so, if you overload the power to the circuits, you get heat generation, quite possibly beyond what your eyeball will withstand comfortably. Contrariwise, you could use some sort of fuse circuit to limit the power... but, unless they're exceptionally cheap to produce, you're going to be pissed about your new toy breaking because you got too close to your power supply (or somebody was actively trying to shut down your toy...)... and, if they're cheap, I don't know of too many cheap things you want sitting on your eyes.

Put those problems aside, suppose the things work perfectly. How long do you think it will take for somebody to decide they want to watch a movie... while driving in the dark? I mean, a cell phone, you can at least see the handset... if you look closely enough, from the right angle, you can even see most hands-free earpieces. Unless these things light up your eyes with an unholy glow visible from a few feet away (which, mind you, would be another point in their favor...), nobody's going to know you're using them until it's much, much too late. No... there's some fun potential with this idea, but it just needs to go away, the sooner the better.