Imagine reading emails and text messages on your contact lenses which are linked to internet. It may sound a bit utopian, but scientists claim that your imagination could soon turn into a reality.

In fact, the futuristic technology has taken a step nearer, thanks to an international team which claims to have developed a prototype lens that could potentially provide the wearer with hands-free information updates.

The scientists from Washington University in the US and Aalto University in Finland have constructed a computerised contact lens and demonstrated its safety by testing it on live eyes, and there were no signs of adverse side effects.

At the moment, the contact lens device contains only a single pixel, but the team sees this as a "proof-of-concept" for producing lenses with multiple pixels which, in their hundreds, could be used to display short emails and text messages right before one's eyes.

The scientists said the device could overlay computer -generated visual information on to the real world and be of use in gaming devices and navigation systems. It could also be linked to the user's body to provide up-to-date information on glucose levels, which could prove medically important.