A new start-up based in DownLyme along England’s UNESCO-approved Jurassic coastline has announced a revolutionary new virtual reality contact lens, which the company says will make post-Covid remote meetings even more realistic. Inyer Eye Ltd hopes to bring the game-changing disposable contact lenses to market later this year, available in all leading opticians at a fraction of the cost of traditional VR goggles.
“We’ve all been working from home during lockdown, trying to replicate the in-office meeting experience,” said Inyer Eye CEO Flora Lopi. “And whilst it’s great to see companies such as PwC taking a lead on VR, we wanted to go one better to ensure that the remote working experience is as realistic as possible.”
Lopi adds that VR enthusiasts shouldn’t be put off by the protruding nature of the lenses as they only stick a little way into eyelids – and only when eyes are closed. “To be honest, VR is so immersive and so addictive that users rarely shut their eyes in any case,” explained Lopi. “And for those who feel the need to blink, we’ve developed a special add-on that attaches to eyebrows and squirts special VR-friendly fluid into the eye to moisten it. This really is the ultimate in immersive working away from the office.”
Inyer Eye are also looking into AR bolt-ons: dual iPad ‘goggles’ that attach to users’ heads via brow-mounted ‘cranes’ that lower the goggles into place in front of the VR-augmented eyeballs. Reports elsewhere that the company is working on AI mouth attachments that allow workers to chat to friends and family or eat their lunch while their brain operates the AI attachments via a USB cable are said to be wide of the mark.
