Diabetes monitoring? Enter Google and its smart contact lens

News

Google, an internet search giant and one of the world's biggest companies, is testing what would be a medical device - a smart contact lens that can give an indication of sugar levels for people with diabetes.

Google says it is liaising with the FDA on the "lens that's built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturized glucose sensor". The prototypes it is testing "can generate a reading once per second".

From the company's same secret laboratory that developed Google glass - which has more to do with consumer gadgetry - the company, in a blog post on the contact lens, does nonetheless sound serious about developing wearable medical tech.

"We're in discussions with the FDA, but there's still a lot more work to do to turn this technology into a system that people can use.

"We're not going to do this alone: we plan to look for partners who are experts in bringing products like this to market.

"These partners will use our technology for a smart contact lens and develop apps that would make the measurements available to the wearer and their doctor."

Brian Otis and Babak Parviz, project co-founders writing at the Google official blog.