Google Contact Lens was a smartcontact lens project announced byGoogle on 16 January 2014.[1] The project aimed to assist people withdiabetes by constantly measuring the glucose levels in theirtears.[2] The project was being carried out byVerily and as of 2014 was being tested using prototypes.[1] On November 16, 2018, Verily announced it had discontinued the project.[3]
The lens consists of awireless chip and a miniaturizedglucose sensor. A tiny pinhole in the lens allows for tear fluid to seep into the sensor to measure blood sugar levels.[4] Both of the sensors are embedded between two soft layers oflens material. The electronics lie outside of both thepupil and theiris so there is no damage to the eye. There is a wireless antenna inside of the contact that is thinner than a human's hair, which will act as a controller to communicate information to the wireless device. The controller will gather, read, and analyze data that will be sent to the external device via the antenna. Power will be drawn from the device which will communicate data via the wireless technologyRFID.[5] Plans to add smallLED lights that could warn the wearer by lighting up when the glucose levels have crossed above or below certain thresholds have been mentioned to be under consideration.[1] The performance of the contact lenses in windy environments and teary eyes is unknown.[4]
The prototypes being tested can generate a reading once per second.
On January 16, 2014,Google announced that, for the past 18 months,[6] they had been working on acontact lens that could help people withdiabetes by making it continually check their glucose levels. The idea was originally funded by theNational Science Foundation[4] and was first brought toMicrosoft.[5] The product was created by Brian Otis and Babak Parviz who were both members of the electrical engineering faculty at theUniversity of Washington prior to working in Google's secret R&D organization,Google X.[5] Google noted in their official announcement that scientists have long looked into how certain body fluids can help track glucose levels easier, but astears are hard to collect and study, using them was never really an option. They also mentioned that the project is currently being discussed with theFDA while still noting that there is a lot more work left to do before the product can be released for general usage, which is said to happen in five years at best,[6] and that they are looking for partners who would use the technology for the lens by developing apps that would make the measurements available to the wearers and their respective doctors.[1] The partners would also be expected to use this research and technology to develop advanced medical and vision devices for future generations.[4]
On July 15, 2014, Google announced a partnership withNovartis'Alcon unit to develop the glucose-sensing smart contact lens.[7]
On November 16, 2018, Verily announced it had discontinued the project because of the lack of correlation between tear glucose and blood glucose.[3]
Endocrinologist Dr.Larry Levin commented the benefits of being able to offer his patients a pain-free alternative to either pricking their fingers or using acontinuous glucose monitor.[8]
However, experts in the field[9] have cast doubt on the ability of the amount of glucose in tears (as measured by the contact lens) to correlate strongly with blood glucose of the user. Many reported studies show, at best, a weak correlation that would not meet accuracy requirements for glucose monitoring.[10][11][12][13]
