Mojo Vision wants to increase vision for the visually impaired with a smart health connected contact lens

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"A screen that never gets in the wayHere is the promise of the Californian start-up Mojo Vision, which unveils its prototype smart health connected lens on January 16, 2020, while some journalists had the information in preview at CES 2020.

Go closer to the eye

While the augmented reality headsets are still bulky and technically limited, the young shoot has shown itself to be very ambitious by integrating a screen directly into a contact lens, which it has called "Mojo Lens". Obviously, the functionality is far from what it is possible to do with a HoloLens 2 headset, we are closer here to smart health connected glasses like the Focals.

A MicroLED screen

The lens can display text information, but can also detect objects, track eye movement, control an interface or even allow you to see in the dark. According to the start-up, "Mojo Lens" includes a MicroLED screen whose perceived resolution is 14,000 pixels per inch (ppi). MicroLED screens have many advantages because they use only 10% of the power of current LCD screens and their brightness is 5 to 10 times higher than that of OLEDs. They are still difficult to produce on a large scale, but the Mojo Lens has the advantage of only needing a very small screen. As for the aesthetics of the lens, Mojo Lens wanted to make the object as "natural" as possible. The entire electronic part will be hidden under an artificial iris.

A first case of medical use

Mojo Vision hopes to initially offer these lenses to the visually impaired. The company is therefore actively working with the Federal and Drug Administration (FDA) as part of its revolutionary devices program, a voluntary program designed to provide safe and timely access to medical devices that can help treat irreversible diseases . Proof that this lens is very promising. The start-up has also signed a partnership with Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, an organization based in Palo Alto which provides rehabilitation services to more than 3000 children and adults with blindness.

Created in 2015, the Californian start-up has already raised $ 108 million (around € 97 million), including a B series of $ 58 million (€ 52 million) closed in March 2019. This round of funding has notably led by Gradient Ventures (Google), Advantech Capital, HP Tech Ventures, Motorola Solutions Venture Capital, Bold Capital Partners, LG Electronics, Kakao Ventures and Stanford StartX. Mojo Vision has not yet released a marketing date. We imagine that there is still a lot of work before ophthalmologists can prescribe a "Mojo Lens" as they prescribe today a pair of conventional lenses.

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