Google yesterday filed a patent application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office for an electronic device that would be implanted directly into peoples' eyeballs. While it's all very preliminary, Forbes notes that the proposed device "contains a number of tiny components: storage, sensors, radio, battery and an electronic lens." What's more, the veritable Google Eyeballs would be powered wirelessly via an “energy harvesting antenna.”
Just what, exactly, is this device intended to do? Well, numerous things (of course), but the publication points out the primary intention seems to be that of improving poor vision (why such a device would need "data storage," as mentioned in the patent, is unclear) by means of an electronic lens. To enable the electronic lens to perform, the patent suggests that the person's actual eyeball lens would first need to be removed.
This is not the only time that Google has ventured into the realm of the eye. In 2014, the company patented a contact lens that came complete with an itsy bitsy camera. Obviously, the possibility back then of having a tiny camera in one's eye brought up a host of ethical questions that Google will not have to address this time around, but as the newly proposed device does involve injecting what amounts to an electronic lens into the eye it is not hard to imagine a not-too-distant future where questions of privacy and eye cameras need to be revisited.
Thankfully, however, that day does not appear to be today.
