There is a 33% chance that you are one of the 100 million Americans that wear contact lenses. You put them on to see things better. But what if you put them on to give you a whole new perspective of the world? Augmented reality already exists on your smartphones, but wouldn’t it be much more “real” if you didn’t have to look at a separate device to achieve that?

“Unless the display industry can deliver transparent, high-performance and compact eyewear, developers of augmented reality and other compelling media applications will simply fail to create the excitement that consumers crave and the functionality that professional users absolutely need,” said Steve Willey, chief executive officer of Bellevue, Wash.-based company Innovega.

The National Science Foundation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency fund the company, whose latest product is a device which combines contact lenses with eyewear. While the eyewear displays the images, the special contacts project the images to the back of the eye, creating the equivalent of a 240-inch television.

According to Steve Willey, CEO of the company, the contact lens-eyewear combination has applications in 3D gaming, immersive video, and augmented reality. According to him, the company is planning a commercial launch in 2014 or 2015. In the meantime, it is planning to release them first for defense contractors and people who have problems with their eyesight.