healthmedicinet

Daily News and Tips

Google’s smart contact lens is coming to an eye near you

  • Google has signed deal with Novartis to produce lenses
  • Project developed in secretive Google X lab

By
Mark Prigg


Published:
12:41 EST, 15 July 2014

|
Updated:
14:53 EST, 15 July 2014

25

View
comments

Google has signed a deal with health giant Novartis to produce its groundbreaking smart contact lenses.

The two will first produce a glucose monitoring lens for diabetics and one to treat farsightedness, it was announced.

However, the firm hinted at ‘other uses’ for the technology – and has recently patented a lens with a built in camera.

Google is testing a prototype for a smart contact lens that we built to measure glucose in tears continuously using a wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor.

THE SMART LENS FOR DIABETICS

The Google lens contains a control circuit, an image capture (camera) component and an image sensor.

The system can be wirelessly linked to a mobile phone for data access and to issue commands via audio, although it is unclear if the lens would be powered wirelessly or have a wired link to a battery.

‘Novartis announced that its eye care division Alcon has entered into an agreement with a division of Google to license its ‘smart lens’ technology for all ocular medical uses,’ the firm said.

The deal is the first to involve the smart lenses, and follow several deal to work with other manufacturers on Glass, the firm’s wearable computer.

‘Our dream is to use the latest technology in the miniaturization of electronics to help improve the quality of life for millions of people,’ said Sergey Brin, Co-Founder of  Google.

‘We are very excited to work with Novartis to make this dream come true.

‘We are looking forward to working with Google to bring together their advanced technology and our extensive knowledge of biology to meet unmet medical needs,’ said Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez.

‘This is a key step for us to go beyond the confines of traditional disease management, starting with the eye.’

Under the agreement, Google[x] and Alcon will collaborate to develop a ‘smart lens’ that has the potential to address ocular conditions.

The smart lens technology involves non-invasive sensors, microchips and other miniaturized electronics which are embedded within contact lenses. 

The first product will help diabetic patients manage their disease by providing a continuous, minimally invasive measurement of the body’s glucose levels via a ‘smart contact lens’ which is designed to measure tear fluid in the eye and connects wirelessly with a mobile device.

The second will help the farsighted.

How it works: The chip includes a sensor, chip and antenna to let wearers know when their glucose levels are dangerously low

‘For people living with presbyopia who can no longer read without glasses, the “smart lens” has the potential to provide accommodative vision correction to help restore the eye’s natural autofocus on near objects in the form of an accommodative contact lens or intraocular lens as part of the refractive cataract treatment,’ the firms said.

‘Alcon and Google have a deep and common passion for innovation,’ said Jeff George, Division Head of Alcon.

‘By combining Alcon’s leadership in eye care and expertise in contact lenses and intraocular lenses with Google’s innovative ‘smart lens’ technology and groundbreaking speed in research, we aim to unlock a new frontier to jointly address the unmet medical needs of millions of eye care patients around the world.’

Earlier this year it was revealed Google has patented a smart contact lens that could see its Glass wearable computer fit inside a smart lens, opening the possibility of its Glass system being shrunk down significantly, offering features such as ‘superzoom’ to wearers and even helping the blind see.

Glass without the glass: Google patent contact lens camera

According to PatentBolt, the system could even be used to help the blind see.

‘For example, a blind person wearing Google’s contact lens with a built-in camera may be walking on a sidewalk and approaching an intersection,’ it says.

‘The analysis component of the contact lens can process the raw image data of the camera to determine processed image data indicating that the blind person is approaching intersection with a crosswalk and establish that there is a car approaching the intersection.’

The lens also has wireless capabilities allowing it to link to a smartphone, which can be used to process data and give the user audio commands.

Google also says the system will be able to detect faces, potentially allowing the blind to recognise people.

The firm is already in discussion with the FDA over the project

‘We’re now testing a smart contact lens that’s built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor that are embedded between two layers of soft contact lens material,’ they said.

‘We’re testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second.

How they are made: The process starts with a tiny chip, which is then mounted on a ring with the antenna and sensor, and finally mounted onto the lens.

  • The moment a Filipino toddler wakes up at her own funeral

  • Carjacker is stopped by members of the public in San Diego

  • Moments before festival-goer dies running into bonfire

  • Golf ball-sized hailstones pummel sunbathers in Siberia

  • Passengers and train driver killed in Moscow metro crash

  • Dad sweats in hot car to raise awareness of hot car deaths

  • Disney employees among those arrested in child sex sting

  • Fountain funnies! Baby gets contagious case of the giggles

  • Best man gets standing ovation after incredible wedding rap

  • This kid parks a go-kart like a boss

  • Fury over shrine to Jersey City cop killer

  • Dzhokhar Tsarnaev jokes with friend day after Boston attack

  • Shoppers smash windows of hot car in Texas to save kids…

  • Dozens of Disney workers arrested in ‘To Catch A…

  • Filipina toddler who woke up at her own funeral Mass is dead…

  • Grandfather admits killing his bedridden wife, 71, and their…

  • Caught on camera, the unique moments of tension, excitement…

  • Why DOES this community hate the police so much?…

  • Fourteen YEAR drought leaves Lake Mead at all-time low: The…

  • Super Mario’s world! The 22-year-old soccer star who won the…

  • Father, 49, dies in small plane crash with his two…

  • Teacher, 52, in critical condition after teens ‘deliberately…

  • Dead cop-killer hailed a hero with memorial BIGGER than…

  • The cigarette girl who became a queen: Pictures reveal…

Comments (25)

what you think

The comments below have not been moderated.

Salzie57,

London, United Kingdom,

1 hour ago

My hubby has age onset diabetes, unfortunately he suffers badly, diabetic retinopathy, neuropathy, failed kidneys, due to start dialysis this year, prior to that he worked in manual labour/driving and I worked as a caterer, we ate the same healthy diet yet he’s diabetic, so get of your high horse and stop classing us all the same.

Meldoo,

Manchester, United Kingdom,

1 hour ago

Why is it always about helping diabetics? Not all, but most diabetics are Diabetic because they spend years stuffing themselves. I couldn’t get a particular injection for my eye from the NHS because I wasn’t Diabetic. Now I’ve lost the sight in one eye. And I am normal weight and DON’T stuff myself.

Nat,

Mcr, United Kingdom,

43 minutes ago

It’s people like you who go running your mouth without having that slightest clue that really wind me up. Type 1 diabetes is an auto-immune disease (like Crohn’s, or Lupus), meaning you can’t bring it on yourself! Babies can be born with Type 1- please tell me again how are they supposed to have ‘stuffed themselves’ to cause this?? YES Type 2 CAN be brought on by being overweight, but there are millions of Type 1 Diabetics out there who have this condition for no reason at all! Don’t they deserve help? I was diagnosed with Type 1 in my teens and I was (and still am) a size 8 dancer and gymnast who I bet is in better shape than you despite my condition! Please stop spreading hateful stereotypes you ignorant pig.

sallygirl76,

USA,

9 hours ago

Another tracking device under the guise of ‘helping diabetics and the blind.’ Puhlease.

ChicagoLoop,

Chicago, United States,

10 hours ago

If they can measure glucose level in tears, then why not just develop a tester that you can swab your eye with a few times per day instead of wearing a lens full time? As for applications for the blind, I’m not buying it. Nor for those who are near sighted, the lens would probably change shape at the most inappropriate times, or have a lag so that when you switched from looking at something near to looking at something far the lens is still all concave and all you see is blur.

Jules2001,

Newcastle Under Lyme, United Kingdom,

10 hours ago

Please please make some huge inroad into controlling Diabetics glucose levels without constant blood tests something like this would be amazing. Someone needs to put the millions into diabetic care especially type two.

2 of 3 replies

Yoko,

Paris,

3 hours ago

@sparkie – check your facts before uttering- diabetes is NOT simply due to eating sweet stuff. I am type 2, have never eaten anything sweet in my life as I can’t abide the taste and smell of sugar, and have gone from healthy 48kg to 80kg within 5 years of injecting insulin once a day.

Sparkie,

Melbourne, Australia,

1 hour ago

The causes of type 2 diabetes are obesity, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, excessive alcohol use, and in some cases, family history. Type 1 is not caused by this. Facts checked Yoko

ronrfgenser,

stevenage,

10 hours ago

I want them but I bet they are going to realy cost I am fed up with sticking pins in my fingers what s tupid way to do things as well as some times painfull there must be simpler ways

eonuk,

manchester,

11 hours ago

Very clever. A camera would be an interesting problem for privacy

Robinson,

Hamilton, Canada,

11 hours ago

Just the right contact lenses for my family – several siblings are diabetic and I am farsighted.

PrivateSi,

WORCS,

12 hours ago

Should fit them to alkies attached to a nagging voice implanted in their heads::: YOU’RE BLIND DRUNK AGAIN YOU FOOL!

sayithowitis,

UK, United Kingdom,

12 hours ago

I don’t know, but I’m not convinced…

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Find out now