In Neuromancer, Gibson’s novel that introduced the concept of cyberspace, the heroine who made the greatest impression on the audience was Molly Millions. A tough mercenary, cyborg, with a plethora of interventions and enhancements to her body that turned her into a killing machine. The most impressive element about her were the implanted lenses in her eyes that provided sharp vision and real-time information; they were also mirrors, thus creating the definition of a frozen gaze. Today, the time has probably come when fiction becomes reality, as Samsung filed in 2014 (and it was published this year) the patent “smart contact lens for augmented reality and methods of manufacturing and operating” (smart contact lenses for augmented reality and methods of manufacturing and operating).
The lenses consist of a small display, camera, RF antenna and sensors for eye movement recognition, which connect to a smartphone and allow the user to perform various actions by blinking. The company, attempting to undermine its competitor Google, promotes the augmented reality model, arguing that the user maintains contact with the real world, whereas with virtual reality headsets one gets lost in a virtual world.
Another small but decisive step then in biocompletion and let the lovers, poets and songwriters remain with the ache of vanished glances that burn and lost eyes behind mirrors…