Health: Smart contact lenses can improve eyesight while controlling disease

In addition to improving your vision, a new smart contact lens design could monitor for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to a study.

Researchers in the UK, US and China developed the target, which includes a mesh sensor layer that measures light, temperature and even glucose levels in tears.

The latter uses beyond the control of diabetes, according to the team, with complications of stroke and heart disease closely related to disorders of blood glucose regulation.

The design, according to the team, does not affect the wearer’s vision or blinking ability and could be adapted in the future to also facilitate retinal function testing.

It could even be given to lens power modules and antennas, which could allow the target to transmit data wirelessly to a computer for analysis.

In addition to improving your vision, a new design of smart contact lenses could monitor for conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke, according to a study.

Researchers from the UK, US and China developed the lens (shown on the left to an artificial eye), which includes a mesh sensor layer (shown in yellow, on the right) that allows measure light, temperature and even glucose levels in tears in order to control for health complications

“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the entire scientific community,” the author of the paper and bioelectronics expert Yunlong Zhao of the University of Surrey’s Institute of Advanced Technology told the Times.

Many of us, he added, have wondered “how our work can help those suffering from similar future medical emergencies.”

“We are confident that devices using our sensor layer system could be used as a non-invasive way to help monitor and diagnose people’s health.”

“Our ultra-thin sensor layer is different from conventional smart contact lenses,” Harvard University author and paper engineer Shiqi Guo told the Times.

These lens designs typically include “rigid or massive sensors and circuit chips that are interposed between two layers of contact lenses and come in contact with tear fluids through microfluidic detection channels.”

However, in the new lens design, the mesh of the coil sensor comes into contact with the tears directly: it includes a simple assembly, a high sensitivity of detection, a good biocompatibility and mechanical robustness.

“Plus, it doesn’t interfere with either blinking or vision,” he said.

The design, according to the team, does not affect the wearer’s vision or blinking ability and could be adapted in the future to also facilitate retinal function testing. Pictured: the serpentine mesh, shown on the left, with the three different sensor modes and, on the right, the complete lens itself

The lens is one of several efforts to develop a “smart” contact lens, either to control blood glucose levels or if it comes in the form of a soft robot that can allow the user to zoom in intermittently. .

A design, from the beginning of Mojo Vision, based in California, with a processor built in the United Kingdom, has a small LED screen that includes 300 pixels to less than half a square millimeter that can display content transmitted to the carrier from the phone.

“We need to build something that shows you information that doesn’t distract you, that helps you, that leaves when you don’t need it, and stays out when you don’t want it,” Steve Sinclair, Mojo’s product manager, told the newspaper. .

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Matter.