Smart contact lenses for health and head-up displays at New Scientist:
The next time you gaze deep into someone’s eyes, you might be shocked at what you see: tiny circuits ringing their irises, their pupils dancing with pinpricks of light. These smart contact lenses aren’t intended to improve vision. Instead, they will monitor blood sugar levels in people with diabetes or look for signs of glaucoma.
The lenses could also map images directly onto the field of view, creating head-up displays for the ultimate augmented reality experience, without wearing glasses or a headset. To produce such lenses, researchers are merging transparent, eye-friendly materials with microelectronics.
In 2008, as a proof of concept, Babak Parviz at the University of Washington in Seattle created a prototype contact lens containing a single red LED. Using the same technology, he has now created a lens capable of monitoring glucose levels in people with diabetes.
It works because glucose levels in tear fluid correspond directly to those found in the blood, making continuous measurement possible without the need for thumb pricks, he says. Parviz’s design calls for the contact lens to send this information wirelessly to a portable device worn by diabetics, allowing them to manage their diet and medication more accurately.
[via Cool Hunting]
10 thoughts on “Cyborg contact lenses”
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“It works because glucose levels in tear fluid correspond directly to those found in the blood, making continuous measurement possible without the need for thumb pricks”
Uh, then why aren’t there glucose sticks out there calibrated for a tear-touch? I suppose so people don’t poke their eyes out while testing, but a little training would go a long way.
Dave
My Dad has diabetes and he needs to check his blood sugar quite a few times a day. this he dos true his fingers, a simple needle pinches him and then a single drop of blood is used. In my eyes this seems more comfortable then having to poke him self in the eye every day, especially because there more sensitive then or fingers.
@Dutchfrak: Don’t think of poking yourself “in the eye”. The newest glucometers use only a very tiny drop of blood. Touching the tip of the stick to the inside corner of the eye should pick up enough tear fluid to measure.
I imagine the calibration would be different from blood (“glucose levels in tear fluid correspond directly to those found in the blood” is not the same as “equal”), but the adjustment could be made.
And try poking a needle into your fingertip, several times a day, for weeks on end. They get pretty tender, I can tell you from experience…
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and let them sit in saline solution over night. Never exceed the
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