Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AFTER WORKING ON developing driverless cars and Glass, Google has announced its latest wearable technology project: a smart contact lens that can keep track of glucose levels.
The company announced that it’s working on a smart contact lens that’s built to measure glucose levels in tears.
The device uses a tiny wireless chip and miniaturised glucose sensor embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material.
Google say that it’s currently testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second and whether it can give wearers an early warning when their glucose levels are dropping low.
The project is still a long way from completion, but it has completed a number of clinical research studies to help refine its prototype version.
Google is saying that it’s in discussions with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and will look for partners to bring the technology to the market.
The project is part of Google X, a section of the company that is dedicated to projects dealing with future technologies. It’s been responsible for developing technologies such as Google Glass and driverless cars.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
HypoGLASSaemia
An advertisement for Mars Bars pops up when your blood sugar gets low.
Smart buggers
As reported my me in the 9@9 slot
Any absolutely fantastic idea. As people get older they find it more difficult to feel if they are getting weak. And, again as they get older, they are more susceptible to getting mild infections which causes sugar levels to spike.
Being able to continuously monitor blood sugar levels, without having to literally drive a needle into the tips of your fingers multiple times every day for ever (ouch!), is brilliant.
My mother has been in hospital 3 times last year, for a month or so at a time. She is in there right now actually as she was admitted over Christmas. All because she is finding it difficult to monitor her sugar levels as she gets older, This would improve her life substantially.
Excellent.
This may sound far fetched and a bit sci-fi, but so did a lot of things we take for granted every day now. If these can help diabetics in their day to day lives, and maybe other similar devices may be used to help people with other illnesses then great, where do I sign up.
Would make a huge difference to my life – am a long time type 1 diabetic with variable diagestion due to much needed cancer surgery (dumping syndrome) and my fingers are in bits. This would make a huge difference to my life and that of my young family.
Thats a sweet project they got there
Can they develop ones that don’t make my eyes dry as f*ck?
#justputtinitoutthere
Take fish oils bro
Actually it was Microsoft who developed and funded this originally…
I would take this one very carefully, it hasn’t been proven that the glucose level in your tears is the same as your blood ! And may never been proven either, sound like another gadget from google here …..
have your say