Back in January of this year, Google unveiled an electronic contact lens that it’s been secretly developing by its X research group. The device is capable of measuring glucose levels in the wearer’s tears, a technology that may one day replace finger pricks for millions of diabetics. Additionally, there are plans to embed LED lights into the lens to automatically warn the user when glucose is outside of healthy levels. But Google is not a medical company, so it has partnered with Alcon, a division of Novartis, to turn the device into a real product.
Besides commercializing a glucose monitoring lens, the collaboration also aims to develop a solution for presbyopia, an eye condition that prevents the natural lens from properly auto-focusing. Such a device will either be an accomodative contact lens or intraocular lens implanted during refractive cataract surgery. The collaboration hopes that by bringing together Google’s experts in electronic design and manufacturing with Alcon’s expertise in physiology and lens design, we’ll be seeing commercialized products within as little as five years. It’s not exactly a time frame Google is used to, but as Larry Page noted recently, “.. it’s just a painful business to be in.”
Flashbacks: Google Announces Eye-Opener: Glucose-Sensing Contact Lenses…; New Blood Glucose Test Sensor Uses Tear Fluid…; Electronic Contact Lenses Promise Future of Advanced Augmented Vision…; Intra-Ocular Glucose Monitoring May Yet be Possible…; Oculir Glucose Measurement: The Eyes Have It…
Press release: Novartis to license Google “smart lens” technology…