Today’s heads-up displays worn by soldiers are bulky and probably quite uncomfortable. DARPA is seeking to solve all that with contact lenses that sport a display to overlay graphics and information on top of the soldiers’ vision.

Specifically, the agency is looking for “information on technology areas for the creation of micro- and nano-scale display technologies for the purpose of creating displays that could be worn as transparent contact lenses”, and they want that information within three to five years.

This sounds like a very ambitious project, but with DARPA behind it maybe, just maybe, we’ll actually see it come to life. Perhaps this is a job for UW scientists and their contact lenses with circuits?

[via Gizmodo]

The University of Michigan has received a $10 million, five-year grant from the Army to develop a miniature spy bat complete with cameras, radar, recharging capability, a self-guidance system, and a radio to send surveillance data.

Scientists will try to shrink current electronics down to allow the bat to be six inches in length, weigh four ounces, and use only one watt of power. They will attempt to create a navigation system 1,000 times smaller and 1,000 times more energy efficient than today’s systems, and a communications system that’s one-tenth of today’s size. Read more »