Mike Wiemer (Mojo Vision) on Making AR Contact Lenses a Reality

The Guest

Mike Wiemer is the CTO and co-founder of Mojo Vision, a company enabling invisible computing with their AR contact lenses. Mike is a brilliant and accomplished technologist who is unafraid of tackling hard problems…and he and his team have solved many on their way to successfully demonstrating their wearable contact lens—working inside somebody’s eye—earlier this summer.

Prior to Mojo Vision, Mike was the co-founder and President of SolarJunction, a company that developed innovative, multi-junction solar cells that set the record for conversion efficiency, twice. Previously, Mike spent 8 years at Stanford, working his way through a Bachelors, Masters, and a Ph.D. with an emphasis on semiconductor physics and optics.

The Conversation

In this conversation, Mike shares some insights from his experience at Solar Junction, and how he came to discover the opportunity for smart contact lenses. He breaks down the set of very hard problems to solve in making these AR contact lenses, and the success Mojo Vision has had in clearing those hurdles, as well as the recent milestone of creating a prototype that people can now wear.

He talks about the challenges of Mojo Vision specifically and AR more generally. Foremost among those challenges is the solution isn’t about a single technological innovation, but the integration of several integrations into a cohesive system. He goes on to share a broader perspective of the opportunity he sees for smart contact lenses and AR glasses.

Jason McDowallhardware, AR smartglasses, micro displays, UX