Samsung Patents Contact Lenses With Built-In Camera

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Samsung has been granted a patent in South Korea for contact lenses with a display that projects images directly into the wearer's eyes.

According to SamMobile, the patent includes a "contact lens equipped with a tiny display, a camera, an antenna, and several sensors that detect movement and the most basic form of input using your eyes: blinking."

A smartphone will be required for the device to work, according to documents.

The "smart" contact lenses could prove to be a substantial upgrade from so-called "smart glasses", posing a threat to what will be its main competitor in the market, Google Glasses.

SamMobile states that the "lenses can provide a more natural way to provide augmented reality than smart glasses."

Google owns two patents for smart contact lenses with flexible electronics and sensors that analyze a  chemical in the tear fluid of the wearer's eyes to determine if their blood sugar levels have fallen to fatal levels.

Samsung applied for its smart contacts patent in 2014, the same year Google received patents in the U.S. for its smart contacts.

Despite being granted the patent, no official announcement has been released that the company will release any consumer products using this technology in  the near future.