Photos: LEDs in your contact lenses

Despite the display being on the cornea of the eye, the image it shows would appear to be on an exterior object such as the windshield of a car or might even seem to be in midair for people browsing the Internet or immersing themselves in a virtual world.

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," Parviz said in a statement when the research was made public last week. The images wouldn't obstruct a wearer's view, researchers added. "There is a large area outside of the transparent part of the eye that we can use for placing instrumentation," Parviz said.