Google's smart contact lenses may arrive sooner than you think

Google inched closer to building its smart contact lens that can help people suffering from diabetes, after securing a patent for an eye-mountable electrochemical sensor.

 

The patent granted April 17 provides for "microelectrodes in an ophthalmic electrochemical sensor" that can potentially raise a health alert based by analyzing the wearer's tears.

 

"Human tear fluid contains a variety of inorganic electrolytes (e.g., Ca.sup.2+, Mg.sup.2+, Cl.sup.-), organic solutes (e.g., glucose, lactate, etc.), proteins, and lipids. A contact lens with one or more sensors that can measure one or more of these components provides a convenient non-invasive platform to diagnose or monitor health related problems," the patent said.

 

"An example is a glucose sensing contact lens that can potentially be used for diabetic patients to monitor and control their blood glucose level," it added.

 

Last January, Google X said it is working on wearable tech that can measure glucose levels for diabetics.

 

Tech site Mashable said smart contact lenses based on this technology may have flexible electronics, sensors and an antenna.

 

It said the sensors can analyze chemicals in the wearer's tears and alert him or her, "possibly through a little embedded LED light," when blood sugar falls to dangerous levels.

 

However, Mashable also noted Google has yet to get the nod of the Food and Drug Administration for the smart contact lenses.

 

"Still, it’s clear that glucose level detection is merely scratching the surface of the potential for these lenses. If Google can effectively build free-standing, communication-ready electronics in a transparent device roughly the size of a standard contact lens, there’s no telling what other kinds of smarts the lens will eventually be able to support. Could Google Glass Contact Lenses be far behind?" it added. — Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News