Google creates a “smart” contact lense for diabetics

Brian Otis gingerly holds what looks like a typical contact lens on his index finger. Look closer. Sandwiched in this lens are two twinkling glitter-specks loaded with tens of thousands of miniaturized transistors. It’s ringed with a hair-thin antenna. Together these remarkable miniature electronics can monitor glucose levels in tears of diabetics and then wirelessly transmit them to a handheld device.

Detailed within a post on the official Google Blog, a team of developers within the Google X unit are currently working on a next generation contact lens that can measure glucose levels. Working on a prototype that can provide a reading once per second, this type of technology could be incredibly useful for anyone that has to deal with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Up to this point, people with diabetes have had to prick their finger to test blood sugar throughout the day or embed a glucose monitor underneath the skin to constant measure spikes in blood sugar.