Smart CONTACT LENSES can improve your vision while monitoring conditions, including diabetes and stroke, by measuring chemicals in the tear fluid.
- The new contact lens design comes from researchers in the UK, USA and China
- It has a mesh sensor that measures light, temperature and glucose levels
- At the same time, the team said, it does not affect vision or the ability to blink
- Future versions may see new test features and wireless antennas added
In addition to improving vision, a new smart contact lens design could monitor conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, a study reported.
Researchers in the UK, USA and China have developed the lens, which has a layer of mesh sensor that can measure light, temperature and even glucose levels in tears.
The latter has a use beyond diabetes monitoring, the team said, with complications of stroke and heart disease closely related to blood sugar regulation disorders.
The project, the team said, does not affect the wearer’s vision or ability to blink and could be adapted in the future to facilitate retinal function tests.
The lenses could even receive power modules and antennas, allowing the lens potential to transmit wireless data to a computer for analysis.
In addition to improving vision, a new smart contact lens design could monitor conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, a study reported (stock image)
Researchers in the UK, USA and China have developed the lens (left image on an artificial eye), which features a layer of mesh sensor (displayed in yellow, right) that can measure light levels, temperature and even glucose in tears for monitor for health complications
“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the entire scientific community,” paper author and bioelectronics expert Yunlong Zhao of the University of Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute told the Times.
Many of us, he added, have wondered how our work could help those suffering from similar medical emergencies in the future.
“We are confident that devices that use our sensor layer system could be used as a non-invasive way to help monitor and diagnose people’s health.”
“Our ultra-thin sensor layer is different from conventional smart contact lenses,” Harvard University author and paper engineer Shiqi Guo told the Times.
These lens models typically feature “rigid or bulk sensors and circuit chips that are interposed between two layers of contact lenses and make contact with tear fluids through microfluidic detection channels.”
However, in the new lens design, the serpentine sensor network comes in direct contact with tears – it comes with “easy assembly, high detection sensitivity, good biocompatibility and mechanical robustness,” added Dr. Guo.
“Moreover, it does not interfere with blinking or sight,” he said.
The project, the team said, does not affect the wearer’s vision or ability to blink and could be adapted in the future to facilitate retinal function tests. Pictured: the serpentine network, shown on the left, with the three different sensor modes and, on the right, the complete lens itself
The goal is part of a series of efforts to develop a “smart” contact lens – either to monitor blood glucose levels or to come in the form of a soft robot that can allow the wearer to magnify by blinking.
One design – since the launch of the Mojo Vision, based in California, and a processor built in the UK – has a small LED display, containing 300 pixels in half a square millimeter, which can display content transmitted to the user on the phone.
“We need to build something that shows you information that doesn’t distract you, helps you, disappears when you don’t need it, and stays off when you don’t want to,” Mojo product chief Steve Times told Times. Sinclair. .
The full results of the study were published in the journal Matter.