Meet Mojo Lens, the world’s first AR smart contact lenses that eliminate screens and let you connect to the internet right from the front of your eyes

The average person in the United States spends approximately 10 hours and 39 minutes each day on smartphones, computers, video games, radios, tablets, and TVs, according to Nielsen Company audience report.

Imagine a world without screens. Instead of endlessly staring at your computer screen and mobile phone and bending your neck down to scroll through photos, videos, and emails, the information simply appears in front of your eyes when you need it and disappears when you don’t.

Now imagine if you can eliminate computer and phone screens with invisible augmented reality (AR) smart contact lenses. While this may sound like science fiction, this is exactly what the team at Mojo Vision has done. It all started in the Fall of 2015 when two Silicon Valley veterans Drew Perkins, Michael Wiemer, who both have poor eyesight, decided to form a secretive startup called Mojo Vision.

A few years later, they recruited talent from Apple, Amazon, HP, Google, and others “to invent something that had never been built before, using technology that was said to have to be ‘called in from the future.” We first wrote about Mojo Vision in 2020 after the company raised more than $51 million Series B to fund the development of the futuristic AR smart contact lens called Mojo Lens. Since then, the Saratoga, California-based Mojo Vision has raised over $100m in funding.

Mojo Lens is the world’s first true smart contact lens, called Mojo Lens with a built-in display that is designed to give people useful and timely information without forcing them to look down at a screen or lose focus on the people and the world around them. Mojo calls this eyes-up experience Invisible Computing, a platform that enables information to be instantaneous, unobtrusive, and also available hands-free, allowing people to interact with each other more freely and genuinely.

With a 14,000 pixel-per-inch display with eye-tracking, image stabilization, and a custom wireless radio, the Mojo Lens’ design uses a tiny microLED display the size of a grain of sand to share critical information, and smart sensors powered by solid-state batteries built into a scleral lens that also corrects your vision.

Unlike current augmented reality wearables such as Google Glass or ThirdEye, which project images onto a glass screen, the Mojo smart lens can project images directly onto the retina. Mojo Lens uses smart sensors powered by solid-state batteries built into a scleral lens that also corrects your vision. By overlaying digital information onto your world, Mojo Lens empowers users to be their best selves in any situation.

Many augmented reality (AR) solutions try to create immersive experiences that can clutter reality. Mojo Lens is different. According to Mojo Vision, Mojo Lens quietly provides you with crucial data while you’re engaged in events that demand your attention.

You can see trails on a ski slope, your pace for your last mile of a run, or talking points for a presentation, all without holding a device or looking down at a screen. With its invisible, wearable display, Mojo Lens helps you keep your concentration by providing information heads-up and hands-free.

Mojo Vision first unveiled the first prototype at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last year. The lens includes a tiny screen positioned right above the most sensitive area of the pupil. “[The Mojo lens] is a contact lens that essentially has wireless power and data transmission for a small micro LED projector that is placed over the center of the eye,” explains David Hobbs, Director of Product Management at Mojo Vision. “[It] displays critical heads-up information when you need it and fades into the background when you’re ready to continue on with your day.”

Explaining how Mojo Lens works, Dr. Ashley Tuan, Vice President of Medical Devices at Mojo Vision and a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry said:

“If you think of the eye as a camera [for the visually impaired], the sensors are not working properly. For this population, our lens can process the image so the contrast can be enhanced, we can make the image larger, magnify it so that low-vision people can see it or we can make it smaller so they can check their environment.”

In January 2020, Mojo Vision secured breakthrough device designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop a smart contact lens. The decision enables Mojo Vision to have early and frequent discussions with the FDA about technical, safety, and efficacy topics before clinical trials can be done and certification granted.

Mojo Lens uses unique, purpose-built microelectronics and the world’s densest, dynamic microLED display to layer digital images and information seamlessly into your life. According to the company, Mojo Lens’ smart situational awareness software understands the athletic, business, and leisure activities users are engaged in, so it can provide critical information without disruption or distraction. Below is the architecture of Mojo Lens.

Founded in 2015 by Drew Perkins, Michael Deering, and Michael Wiemer, the Saratoga, California-based Mojo Vision is a fledgling augmented reality company that develops products and platforms. Mojo envisions delivering information and knowledge that is immediate but without the disruption of traditional devices. Mojo Lens is currently in the research and development phase and is not available for sale anywhere in the world.

Below is a video overview of how Mojo Lens works.

Below is another video of how Mojo Lens is leading the trillion-dollar cyborg revolution.