The smart contact lens that can constantly monitor the glucose levels
It may be best known for its interactive Glass specs, but Google today revealed a radical smart contact lens for diabetics.
It analyses their tears, warning them if their glucose levels are low.
The search giant said it hoped to develop other apps for the smart contact lens, which could one day even show wearer's other types of information and include tiny screens.
Google is testing a prototype for a smart contact lens that we built to measure glucose in tears continuously using a wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor.
'But you may not be familiar with the daily struggle that many people with diabetes face as they try to keep their blood sugar levels under control.
'Uncontrolled blood sugar puts people at risk for a range of dangerous complications, some short-term and others longer term, including damage to the eyes, kidneys and heart.
'A friend of ours told us she worries about her mom, who once passed out from low blood sugar and drove her car off the road'
The project's co-founders, Brian Otis and Babak Parviz, say they hope the technology could eventually become commonplace.
HOW IT WORKS
The smart contact lens can measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material.
Prototypes generate a reading once per second.
Google is also investigating the potential for this to serve as an early warning for the wearer, integrating tiny LED lights that could light up to indicate that glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds.
'You’ve probably heard that diabetes is a huge and growing problem—affecting one in every 19 people on the planet,' Google said in a blog post announcing the research.
Credit to Dailymail.co.uk
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2540963/Forget-Glass-Google-reveals-smart-Contact-Len.html#ixzz2qfRyajrH
Source: http://nunezreport.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-smart-contact-lens-that-can.html
