Scientists invent micrometers-thin battery charged by saline solution that could power smart contact lenses::Scientists from NTU Singapore have developed a flexible battery as thin as a human cornea, which stores electricity when it is immersed in saline solution, and which could one day power smart contact lenses.

    • dangblingus@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      How? Bionic ocular implants already exist. A contact lens is not going to be able to restore sight to the blind.

      • GreenBottles@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        perhaps not to the totally blind but to those that have degenerative diseases contact lenses absolutely can help

      • Zron@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Now you can see your friends dying in the next room, instead of just hearing it!

        Or if it’s only a map, now you can see how surrounded your unit is!

        This is valuable tactical data, surely it won’t cause any morale issues.

        • Kungolicious@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s true. All new inventions have a morality issue to them. And those moralities need to be weighed heavily before implementing them.

          But it can also be used to guide a secluded operative back to his troop. It can be used to detect road mines that otherwise would have exploded.

          New technology is just a tool. It’s the people choosing how to use it that makes it moral/immoral.

          • whoops69hehe@lemmynsfw.com
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            1 year ago

            You’re not wrong, but the prior comment references “morale issues” which is different from “moral issues” or morality in general. The former is about the troops feeling of well-being and optimism (morale) and the latter is about ethics and right vs wrong (morality).

          • Zron@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Listen, all I’m saying is if I was surrounded by enemy combatants on all sides, I wouldn’t want to have to see that while getting shot at.

            Also wouldn’t want to see a fellow soldier get gunned down in a little twitch.tv window in my eye while I’m trying to clear a room.

            I’d call that a major distraction. And distractions in combat get people killed when otherwise they might have lived.

            Maybe smart contacts would have some use for NCOs, even then, a tablet or something with the same info would be just as useful and less likely to block vision. Giving it to everybody would just cause panic and confusion on a battlefield.

      • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Some “blind” people do have data coming in, it’s just so blurry/skewed that it’s worthless. It might be possible to fix this but it would be a case by case basis and likely very expensive. Not all blindness is a world of black

        • Lazerbeams2@ttrpg.network
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          1 year ago

          Even totally blind people can usually detect light as painful, slightly less dark darkness. That’s actually why so many wear dark sunglasses