Mojo Vision Discontinues AR Contact Lens

Mojo Vision is stopping research and development (R&D) into its AR contact lens after failed AR contact lens investor search. Now the firm has shifted its focus to MicroLED.

Augmented reality (AR) wearables innovator Mojo Vision officially cancelled its immersive contact lens. Due to a lack of funds, the company has decided to halt R&D on its AR contact lens prototype. Mojo Vision CEO Drew Parkins stated that the current economic crunch was a factor in his company’s device cancellation.

He added “The slumping global economy, extremely tight capital markets, and the yet-to-be proven market potential for advanced AR products have all contributed to a situation where Mojo Vision has been unable to find additional private funding to continue its development of Mojo Lens.”

Due to the product cancellation, Mojo Vision will layoffs roughly 75 percent of its staff.

The Company CEO Parkins said “We believe Micro-LED will disrupt the entire $160B display industry and our unique technology puts us at the forefront of this disruption.”

Mojo Vision fails to attract investors for funding

According to the post, the change is due to Mojo’s failure to continue raising funds for its smart contact lens. “The slumping global economy, extremely tight capital markets, and the yet-to-be proven market potential for advanced AR products have all contributed to Mojo Vision’s inability to find additional funding,” Perkins wrote.

Too large a project with insufficient funds

Steve Sinclair, the director of marketing at Mojo Vision, first mentioned the need for additional cash last summer. The company had about 110 people and $205 million in capital at the time, which was insufficient for a project of this size.

What next for Mojo Vision?

Mojo Vision has now revealed a shift in strategy: Going forward, the company will concentrate on commercializing the MicroLED technology developed for the lens since it believes it has “substantial near-term market potential.” The contact lens is to be “decelerated”.

Perkins said Mojo is focusing its resources The micro-LED technology that boost Mojo. The backbone of the product was a 14,000 ppi micro-LED display that the business had developed “We believe micro-LED will disrupt the entire $160 billion display industry and our unique technology puts us at the forefront of this disruption,” 

Reason behind the failure of the project

During CES 2020, the company displayed the Mojo lens, which was obviously still a long way from being commercially available. The demo unit’s 14,000 pixel-per-inch screen appeared to function as intended, but it required an extra CPU and battery, which is not ideal if you intend to wear it in your eye. A “feature-complete prototype” with on-board power and communications was worn by Perkins in a video that Mojo posted in June 2022.

Where Google Glass has been rejected, it’s uncertain if the general public has warmed up to the concept of face-mounted computers. Even though we now accept that, Mojo might have faced tough competition. Meta is investing billions of dollars on augmented reality while also purchasing businesses involved in the smart glasses industry. Theoretically, glasses might be able to offer comparable capabilities in a somewhat different form factor, even though they don’t necessarily feel as modern as smart contacts.

Mojo is not the only company to have to put a halt to work on wearables based on the eyes. In 2018, Verily, a subsidiary of Alphabet, the corporation that owns Google, halted its study on contact lenses that could track a wearer’s blood sugar levels.