Two interesting articles on work to replace and upgrade human vision.  To begin, Gizmodo covers research to replace the retina with a micro-camera.  The mission being to replace lost vision with a chip that would record and stimulate the natural optical nerves with a chip. 

The second article, from medGadget, reports on an attempt to embed a visual feed into something as basic as a contact lens.  This would allow for a wide range of use from tourism to combat assistance to gaming, as the feed, if combined with GPS and directional awareness, could be overlayed on what the viewer can see in the moment. This could also have influence on education and psychology by adding/removing visual influences which might cause stress or distraction.

Naturally, once somone’s retina is replaced, it should be simple to include this type of visual overlay.

Vibrating vest could send alerts to soldiers – tech – 03 January 2007 – New Scientist Tech

Commands sent from the computer are translated into patterns
“displayed” – like Braille-on-the-back – by the vibrating motors. The
wearer’s back was chosen to receive messages because it is a relatively
large area that is also less likely to sustain damage.

This is brilliant. Utilizing a large region of skin to receive updates, leaving the ears and eyes to focus on the immediate environment. I’m not a soldier, but I have practiced martial arts for nearly 20 years and play games providing a first-person perspective. The first thing I normally do in any game is to turn off the narrative voice and dial down the ambient music. I prefer to receive an unfiltered version of my surroundings and, through a leap of intellect, I can see why soldiers would benefit from this type of technology.

My only question is, “When can we have these for gaming?”

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