Mojo Vision, a provider of smart contact lenses based in California, has established partnerships with five connected-fitness platforms: Adidas Running, the German sportswear company’s digital-tracking division; Trailforks, a trail-mapping service for cyclists and hikers; Wearable X, provider of smart haptic fitness apparel; Slopes, an iOS, Android and Apple Watch app for skiers and snowboarders; and 18Birdies, a golf platform. The smart lens that would be worn to connect with these apps is not yet on the market, however.
Mojo describes itself as a specialist in “invisible computing.” What is actually invisible in the product is not the computer, which could be a smartphone or another device, but the display. As the company states the problem that it is addressing, “wearable innovation in existing form factors is starting to reach its limits.” In other words, the need to turn your attention to a screen is necessarily an impediment to whatever you’re doing, which could be giving a speech, running a marathon or playing golf.
Mojo’s solution is the smart contact lens, which incorporates a microLED display “the size of a grain of sand” and “smart sensors powered by solid-state batteries” into a “scleral lens that also corrects your vision.” The result for the wearer, judging from Mojo’s website, is like the head-up speed display that certain cars project onto the inside of their windshield. The wearer sees the world as he would through any other contact lens, but with a data display overlaid somewhere in the picture.
The partnerships mentioned above stem from a survey of 1,300 athletes conducted by Mojo. Some 74 percent of the athletes said they usually or always use a wearable data-tracker when training, 82 percent said they look at or use their devices while training, and 83 percent said they would like to see the data as they train. Athletics would seem to be a prime market for the device.
As for security, Mojo says it is building the platform in such a way as to ensure privacy and pledges to be “open” about its design.
Meanwhile, Mojo has raised an additional $45 million in a Series B-1 round of funding. Among the new investors are Amazon Alexa Fund, PTC, Edge Investments and HiJoJo Partners. Previous investors include NEA, Liberty Global Ventures, Advantech Capital, AME Cloud Ventures, Dolby Family Ventures, Motorola Solutions and Open Field Capital. Total funding so far amounts to $205 million.
