(That is not a Star Trek reference, by the way. It’s the new Kenyan president, Uhuru Kenyatta.)

I know all this, because Twitter brought Twitter Trends to 160 new locations today.

Twitter Trends gives anyone the ability to see what people are talking about right now — anywhere in the world. Anywhere, that is, that Twitter has introduced the feature.

After bringing Twitter Trends to 100 new cities in December of last year, Twitter has now introduced Trends in 160 new locations, including Belgium, Greece, Kenya, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and Ukraine … plus an additional 130 new cities.

That brings the total number of Twitter Trend countries to 42. Most of them have also tailored trends for individual cities — 62 U.S. cities are included.

And the 140-character social network is not finished yet. Twitter software engineer Royce Cheng-Yue writes:

To make Trends more convenient and relevant for people around the world, we’re constantly working to bring Trends to more locations –– be on the lookout for even more in the future.

photo credit: hownowdesign via photopin cc

Not to mention dorky glasses.

The first prototype shows an image of a dollar sign — apparently the researchers are already thinking about commercialization. While it currently can display only simple images (similar in complexity to a cheap dollar-store calculator), Imec says future versions should be able to control light transmission to the retina, create different colored irises, and function as a heads-up display, which could superimpose almost any image right onto your field of vision.

You can see the new contact lenses in this movie from Imec … with appropriately James Bond-ish music:

The LCD display technology that Imec created allows the use of almost all of the contact lens surface, unlike LED-based applications that only enable a few pixels. In fact, Imec says, the technology will work for a range of pixel sizes and numbers.

The main challenge, of course, beside the thinness, has been the shape:

“Normally, flexible displays using liquid crystal cells are not designed to be formed into a new shape, especially not a spherical one,” Jelle De Smet, the project’s primary researcher, said in a statement. ”Thus, the main challenge was to create a very thin, spherically curved substrate with active layers that could withstand the extreme molding processes.”

Imec, which claims to be three to ten years ahead of the industry, created the new contact lens at the Center for Microsystems Technology.

It’s almost too bad that Apple has already patented its term for very high-density, high-quality screens. Because this truly has the potential to be a real retina display.

photo credit: jonycunha via photopin cc