9 Patents That Give Us a Glimpse into the Future

Last week, we finally saw a commercially viable flying car in the form of Tesla's Roadster demonstration. It was able to drive upside down, fly up into the air, and then land back down softly. Really something that looked like it was from the future. Now, I looked into it, and that suction ability that allows the car to drive upside down, it was covered in two separate patents, one from 2025 and one from 2026. And when I found that out, I thought, you know, now's a good opportunity to go through some patents and look for cool patents that are currently out there, which might give us a glimpse into other interesting futuristic products that might be coming down the pike. And of course, I will mention at the top that owning a patent does not mean that you're actually developing anything. You could just be sitting on it so that. So that that idea cannot be taken up by your competitors and they can develop it. So you're basically just sitting on it. But sometimes, including some cases that we'll discuss, the patent is really becoming a physical product right now. And so let's go through nine of these interesting patents together. And if you appreciate this type of content, please do smash those like and subscribe buttons, which will help this video reach ever more people. Thank you so much for that. So let's start with number one. Sony's contact lens camera. In 2021, Sony was granted a patent for its application outlining a camera lens that went into a contact lens. The patent describes a contact lens which contains a unit inside of it capable of capturing images along with control circuitry and other electronics like sensors and antennas. And one particularly futuristic aspect of his design was that the contact lens can use intentional blinking as a trigger for when to take the picture. The patent goes on to describe being able to distinguish deliberate eyelid movements from just ordinary day-to-day blinking, which would be hilarious if this product comes to market and you want to take some secret photos, but to do so, you have to just keep blinking four times continuously to take one photo. However, obviously, five years after the patent was granted, it was granted in 2021, and now it's 2026, these contact lenses do not appear to be on the market. Most likely, there are still some engineering hurdles, like needing the proper power supply, as well as the battery pack, heat that would come from processors touching the camera. You have storage space limitations, wireless communications in these things, if they're going to be syncing up to the cloud. And all the while, having all that circuitry on there, While still being comfortable and safe for the person to wear. So all that combined is probably the reason why no viable Sony contact lens camera products are commercially available yet. All right, just to pause here for a super quick moment, if you've watched our program, Facts Matter, then you know that we focus on one thing, which is the facts, not speculation, not narratives, just what the data shows. And right now, the data globally is pointing in a direction people should really be paying attention to, which is the fact that global conflicts are fueling market uncertainty. That's why I believe in owning something real, something physical, something that the government can't just inflate away, which is physical gold. And physical silver from today's sponsor, which is American Hartford Gold, the company that I trust and who I've been personally buying from for many years now. These are tangible assets. They're not tied to policy decisions or shifting narratives. Gold has held its value for thousands of years through inflation, currency changes, the rise and fall of empires, as well as general global instability. In a certain sense, gold actually thrives in periods of global instability. And American Hartford Gold is a good company. They have an A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau, thousands of five-star reviews. They can deliver your gold and your silver directly to your doorstep, or they can help you set up a gold IRA if you're trying to diversify your retirement. And right now, when you call and mention my name, Roman, you can get up to $20,000 in free silver with your first qualifying purchase. So give them a call. 866-242-2352, or just text Roman to 65532. That's again, 866-242-2352, or text Roman to 65532. I'll also throw all their details. You'll be able to find them down in the description box below. Moving along at number two, though, we have Disney with a patent for a virtual world without a VR headset. Now, at the moment, when it comes to creating a Virtual reality experience, most companies have gone the headset route, an Oculus Rift, an Apple Vision Pro, or something else like that. But in 2021, Disney was issued a patent for a virtual world simulator capable of projecting computer-generated effects into a real-world venue, something I assume like a miniaturized version of the Las Vegas Sphere. The system that they patented, it can map the geometry of a physical location, Track a person's, meaning your location within that physical environment, as well as not only your position, but also your perspective, and it can adjust the projected virtual effects to fit your movement in that environment. Now the patent, it even describes being able to track multiple users at once. And so basically, instead of putting on a headset, And entering a VR world, a virtual reality world to hang out with your friends, the concept would be turning a physical venue space itself into a virtual environment that I guess each individual person experiences differently because their movements would be tracked and they will be shown things from their own perspective. Now you can be physically together with your friends and in a virtual environment. And so obviously this likely ties in with Disney's theme parks. You wouldn't need a physical venue and they have a lot of physical venues. For years now, Disney has been protecting technologies like this that could make the theme park experience more interactive and more immersive. And so they claim patents for things that other companies might use and just sit on them. Thus far though, Disney has not installed any VR attractions in their parks that we know of. Maybe they're testing it out, but as of right now, from the moment the patent was issued to now, There are no VR experiences like that at Disney. But while we're on the topic of Disney, patent number three in this video is also owned by Disney. In 2017, they received a patent for a soft-bodied robot that's designed to give hugs. Disney designed a toy-sized humanoid robot whose arms, torso, pelvis, and back contain soft, deformable, air-filled modules. And those modules, they serve two separate purposes. They cushion the person from the robot's hard mechanical components, making them soft to the touch. But secondly, they also act as pressure sensors, allowing the robot to detect how much force is being applied to it. Basically, how hard it's being hugged. In a research study, Disney took 28 children aged. Four to ten, they gave them these pressure-sensing dolls, and the researchers, they then measured the forces that were produced by both gentle as well as strong hugs by these kids, and they used that information to establish these design parameters for the hugging robot. And the Disney's researchers, in their paper, they described the goal explicitly as to be to create a robot that could physically interact with children while remaining safe and durable. The physical design on the patent resembles Baymax from Big Hero 6, but the quote-unquote skin on the robot can actually change to accommodate other Disney characters as well. Meaning, if this goes into production in the near future, you might find a Winnie the Pooh doll, a Mickey Mouse, a... Sora from Kingdom Hearts toy on the shelf that you can hug and potentially can hug you back with the same intensity that you give it. It can kind of mirror what you're giving it. Moving along to number four, where we have Tesla's laser windshield cleaner. In March of this year, Tesla was issued a patent grant for a laser technology designed to clean glass surfaces like windshields as well as solar panels. The patent describes a vehicle cleaning system using a laser beam as well as a debris detection framework. The system detects contamination glass surfaces and calibrates the laser's exposure to perfectly clean it. While this technology in theory does sound like it's useful for cleaning hard-to-reach roof mounted solar panels, it's not exactly clear how it would be more efficient than just using a windshield wiper. Which might be why Tesla has yet to include this tech in any of their vehicles. But the patent is still there, allowing them to do so in the future, as well as, I guess, to stop their competitors from mounting these laser windshield wipers on their cars. Moving along to number five, you have Amazon's Flying Warehouse. Now, already today, I'll mention that in certain areas of the country, like in Texas, you have Amazon drones making deliveries directly to people's homes. The next big step to that, though, might be giant dirigibles flying in the sky. In 2016, Amazon was issued a patent for an airborne fulfillment center. Essentially, it's an airship that looks like a blimp carrying inventory at a high altitude. The blimp then has an army of little drones to take the products and deliver it directly to the customer's homes. The patent also envisions smaller airships that move back and forth. from the ground to the big airship in order to resupply it with things like fuel inventory as well as workers. The patent says that the airship would typically operate at around 45,000 feet, which is high. It's above most commercial air traffic. However, here was the best part. I mean, the thing is actually very cool, but here's the best part. The patent also suggests that the airship could drop down to as low as 2,000 feet above ground and it could begin blaring Advertisements both audibly. As well as visually on the side of the airship. And so if you thought that ads could not get any worse, this really would be next level. Now, while the patent remained active, there is no publicly available evidence that Amazon has built and deployed any prototypes of this type of airship floating fulfillment center. But it's very viable because they already have these drones making deliveries. This would just be the next logical step. Now, so far, we've covered five. Sci-fi style patents that have yet to materialize into real-world products. The second half of this list, though, will show some recent patents that have actually moved into the development slash commercialization stage, starting with number six, eye control for Meta's smart glasses. Now Meta right now is investing heavily in smart glasses, with the belief being, as stated by Mark Zuckerberg, that they will soon replace the need for a smartphone altogether. Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, they went on sale, I believe last year they went on sale for the first time, and they've become hugely popular. I think they hold something upwards of 80% of the current market share for smart glasses. Within just about a year, they were seemingly everywhere. Looking through the patent registry though, you will see that Meta has a fairly substantial portfolio of different eye-tracking patents that basically turn the human eye into a mouse cursor on the glasses. And earlier this year, in March of 2026, Meta was issued another one of these patents for eye control for their smart glasses. It describes a type of smart glasses interface that uses eye tracking, including the position of the pupil, as well as different eye gestures that would allow the device to infer what the person wants to have happen on the screen. Here was Mark Zuckerberg describing how this whole thing would actually work. The Meta Neural Band, that's this guy. All right now the display is large enough to watch a video or you know read a thread of messages. It appears in one eye, it's slightly off center so it doesn't block your view. It is very high resolution and very bright. Then there's the neural interface, the Meta Neural Band. So for the glasses we are replacing the keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, buttons, dials. With the ability to send signals from your brain with little muscle movements that the neural band will pick up so you can silently control your glasses with barely perceptible movement. We have built a neural interface into a durable, lightweight, comfortable, and good-looking wristband. We wanted to make it really easy to send and receive messages. So, it's good to just be able to type without anyone seeing. Now, if you happen to be a customer of Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, you might notice that the eye-tracking element he's describing there is missing from the display version of the Meta smart glasses. And that's because the eye-tracking tech isn't quite ready for inclusion in the existing models, according to some statements that were made by Meta. But it appears that they're working on it, and possibly within the next year or two. You will really be able to control things using your eye. Moving along though to number seven, we have Boston Dynamics. They are the OG purveyors of futuristic robot videos. Long before the rise of AI and all these Chinese dancing robots, about a decade ago, Boston Dynamics was the company that would release maybe one or two videos a year, which would showcase the latest development of the Uncanny Valley robotics. And in October of 2025, they received a patent for arm and body coordination. That tech, It would involve coordinating a robot's arm with the movement of the entire body so that it can position itself to accomplish manipulation tasks. And then 12 months later, after they were issued that patent, there's now a commercial product to bring that patent to life. It's called ATLAS, the Boston Dynamics Electrical Humanoid Robot. The company describes the all-electric ATLAS as designed for real-world applications, but not in your home, more like corporate. Well, not corporate. Industrial applications. The company is positioning Atlas primarily as an industrial worker in the automotive industry. Basically, it's their answer to replace all the workers on a car assembly line, meaning that one of the few remaining manufacturing jobs in the country might go out the window in the near future. That's true. I guess you'd call it the march of progress. Moving along to number eight, we have another entry from Elon in the form of Neuralink's patent for controlling computers and robots using your thoughts. In fact, Neuralink has several active patents covering various components of their implantable brain-computer interface. In 2024, Neuralink released the first video showcasing their brain-computer interface. how it works with a real human, and here's what that looked like. In January 2024, Neuralink reached a milestone that had once seemed like science fiction. A 30-year-old man named Noland Arbaugh, who had been paralyzed from the shoulders down after a swimming accident, became the first person to receive the company's telepathy brain implant. The procedure, performed at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, marked the beginning of Neuralink's first real-world human trial. The goal wasn't simply to implant a chip. It was to find out whether a person could control a computer, using nothing but thought. Just days after the device was activated, Noland began doing exactly that. He moved a cursor across a screen, browsed the internet, played online chess, and even enjoyed strategy games all without lifting a finger. Every command came directly from his brain. The company's first product will allow users to control their phones or computers just with their thoughts. And then earlier this year in February of 2026, Neuralink was granted another patent covering wireless neural implant pairing. That program is called Telepathy, and they're currently running clinical trials testing hands-free computer and robotic arm control using brain signals, as well as converting neural activity into speech. Here's a video of some of that in action. Hello, I'm Neuralink. And press that top button. Hello. How are you doing today? You just got your voice back. And according to some of the Neuralink company investor documents, Neuralink is targeting FDA approval for telepathy in 2029. And if approved, they stated that they expect roughly 2000 implants that year in 2029, and they expect to expand to 10,000 implants by the year 2030, which is amazing news for quadriplegics and their families, I'm sure. But For everybody else watching it, you're wondering whether this is the direction we should actually be going. But again, for quadriplegics, it's amazing news that that is coming down the pike. And then lastly, at number nine, we have Hyundai and Kia with an active patent portfolio centered around wearable robotic exoskeletons. The patents paint a picture of what's being developed when you look at them more broadly. For instance, you have one recently granted U.S. patent that covers an exoskeleton designed to attach to the user's body and assist them in different forms of movement. And then they have another application from earlier this year, which covers a wearable robot using a support structure and wire mechanism to provide different forms of assistance. Basically, looking at these patents together, it's a real life mech suit, parts of which are actually already available. For instance, Honda's exoskeleton shoulder. is already a commercially viable product that's out there on the market and the company is deploying it with industrial customers like Korean Air it's a basically mech suit attachment designed to reduce the load on a worker's shoulder when they have like a prolonged instance of needing to work by holding their arms over their head and working with Korean Air makes sense since aircraft manufacturing workers do spend a lot of time working with their hands above their heads and Those say that they intend to expand this technology to other industries, not just the airline industry, things like construction, shipbuilding, as well as agriculture, meaning in the very near future, you'll have people out in the fields wearing all sorts of mech suit components in order to not, I guess, tire themselves out when they're working in the fields eight hours a day. And so that's it. Those are the nine. Most future sounding patents making their way towards commercialization reality. Some of them are already out there in the market and others are, at the very least, the patent exists so we can get an idea that that's where that company's train of thought is heading. If you know of any more interesting patents that we did not include in this episode, please leave them down in the comment section below. I'll be looking through it and I'm sure that people watching this video will be as well. And then lastly... Smash those like and subscribe buttons if you haven't already so this video reaches ever more people. And then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from The Epic Times. Stay informed. Most importantly, stay free.