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Google Announces Smart Contact Lens Project For Diabetics
An anonymous reader writes "Google has announced on its official blog that it's working on a new way for diabetics to monitor their blood sugar: a 'smart' contact lens. Diabetes is a difficult condition to treat because blood sugar levels vary widely by a person's activity level and food intake. It's also hard to monitor without painful and intrusive measurements — people can feel normal at dangerously high blood sugar levels, while extremely low levels can impair their ability to seek treatment. Google says, 'Over the years, many scientists have investigated various body fluids—such as tears—in the hopes of finding an easier way for people to track their glucose levels. But as you can imagine, tears are hard to collect and study. At Google[x], we wondered if miniaturized electronics—think: chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair—might be a way to crack the mystery of tear glucose and measure it with greater accuracy. 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. We're testing prototypes that can generate a reading once per second.' They're talking with the FDA and bringing in experts to help them figure out the best way to do it."
Can they make my ex GF's eye's turn red before she goes crazy and attacks me, while having a low blood sugar experience?
I'm not signing anything
Yesterday google glass... today google contact lenses... tomorrow google supository...insert the whole internet right up your ass!
Google wants to know your blood sugar level so that they know when best to target ads to you.
This looks like a development in the Google Glass project. It's a natural progression, much like people move from normal glasses to contact lenses, Google must be thinking of a way to turn Google Glass into a contact lens product. [It would raise major privacy issues if businesses could not identify who is wearing Google Contacts] Using a medical application sounds like an innocuous foray--a test of concept. That said, assuming no ulterior motive, it sounds like a worthy venture, especially if it improves upon current continuous glucose monitoring methods.
This is amazing news... I believe we might not be far from some sort of sensor that will monitor our main "health checks" (sugar level in blood, cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, etc) and give us an accurate, real time report, in a non-intrusive / painful way...
"A sysadmin is a cross between a detective, a police officer, a gardener, a doctor and a fireman"
Won't be cheaper/less bulky instead of antenna and cpu to send the information to simply show an icon in your vision and let the wearer decide what to do? If must have that logic and let the doctors decide for the patient, an implant (in the arm or wherever, with more freedom to put more sensors) would be less cumbersome than putting on contact lenses every day for this. In fact, contact lenses with certain areas reacting to some chemical conditions in eyes surface changing color could need no circuits at all, and the wearear would have some icons on display when something is wrong.
Version 3.0 will still be in Beta, then before they get to 4.0 they'll cancel the project leaving millions without a vital tool they've come to depend on.
Excuses will be made that "Diabetics are only a small fraction of the total Google user base, so we just couldn't justify keeping those resources tied up on something we couldn't monetize with AdWords."
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
This is a lot more realistic than the ever-repeating "display integrated into a contact lens" stories. Continuous, non-invasive monitoring of blood sugar will be an enormous boon, especially if it can be integrated with insulin-pump control.
Having said that, though, wearing a contact lens actually is kind of invasive. I wore them happily for many years, but there were also periods where it wasn't a very happy experience. Contacts do increase certain risks to your eyes, and diabetics already face significant risks to their vision. (As far as I know, the cornea-related risks from contacts are independent of the retina-related risks from diabetes.) I can imagine many diabetics wouldn't be very enthusiastic about wearing a contact lens, especially if they don't need it for vision correction.
hipaa will them smackdown Google very hard and I hope the fine is at least 3X-5X what they made off the ads.
This would be an excellent development, bit keep in mind the field is littered with many dozens of failed devices and startup companies.
Of the various http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noninvasive_glucose_monitor"> non-invasive glucose monitoring methods that have been tried, I am aware of only one that was approved in the US (a transcutaneous electroporation device), and that one was withdrawn from the market shortly after.
Shouldn't they first determine if tears are an accurate way to measure glucose in the first place? That could be measured now, even if it would not be convenient. It would seem that if you are willing to wear a micro sensor in your eye, why not just inject it under the skin? If you did that, you could make it the size of an rfid tag.
The contact lens requires tears. The most effective generator of tears? Pinpricks . . . .
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If it's like the other continuous monitoring devices, it will be priced in the stratosphere, with sensors "needing" to be replaced every few days, at $75 a pop.
I can't wear contacts. This would be great for diabetics who can, though. I guess I'll still be waiting for some other non-intrusive method.
Proverbs 21:19
I think many of the comments are missing the point, Diabetes testing supplies are worth a lot of money every year. If, and that's a big if, Google can introduce a market altering device, (patented, I'm sure) they will largely own the market.
I'm going out on a limb here, I've just read thorough the whole thread and I'm speculating it's the exact same AC posting FUD in just about every sub-thread. So is the Microsoft PR department no paying for sock-puppet accounts anymore?
Then I read all the AC comments about how much this sucks and they don't want it to succeed, because "Google bad!". Screw you guys.
d
Some of the original research in this area was carried out by Angelika Domschke (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/angelika-domschke/19/709/824). For example, this study happened back in 2006 - http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/dia.2006.8.89.
Fun fact - Google tried to recruit her and she turned them down after meeting their team.
I am a type-2 diabetic for the past quarter century and most probably I have used any glucose measuring device ever manufactured in the US. Even the minimal intrusion ones are not fun to deal with and to carry around. This contact lens device, which is always on, would be a god sent.
:)
I wish I were working for google and could participate in the "beta" testing phase of it
__________
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Guys, these are medical devices. They won't be able to sell them in the US without FDA approval and in other countries with their governments' medical regulatory agencies' approval. And with these, unlike gMail or search, you are the customer, not the product.
For those of you who missed the significance of the first sentence, google it (although you shouldn't have to, you should already know).
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Before anyone gets the idea that Google did meaningful research, know that the real science and technology here has been demonstrated in labs for 20 years. The quotation from Google in TFS makes it look like Google solved a "mystery" and did science, but what they did is normal Google work: they packaged other people's publicly funded and disclosed work, slapped patent protection on it, and commercialized it. To some people this is the heart of innovation, but whether or not you think it's impressive, at least recognize that Google did polishing and packaging here, not an iota of science.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
Make sure not to wear them to a job interview, lest you're wirelessly ruled out due the risk of higher medical costs related to diabetes.
Here's the thing: FDA approval will be required for Google to actually sell this thing. And the FDA doesn't tolerate "Beta".
So you are saying that, somehow, the FDA would force Google to keep selling the product? And that the FDA won't ever allow a useful product to be discontinued by it's manufacturer due to lack of desired profitability? Really?
Also, these will be designed to transmit the collected data, undoubtedly to a proprietary smartphone app (available for both iPhone and Android), which couldn't possibly send that data to Google for their marketing and tracking purchases?
Hmmm...blood sugar a little low? Suddenly all your adwords beside your google searches are for candy bars. Email "offers" start showing up at the top of your gmail inbox, etc. ad naseam.
And, as I mentioned in my first post, if it turns out not to be as profitable as Google desires, away it will go.
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
So you are saying that, somehow, the FDA would force Google to keep selling the product?
Of course not. Whoever owns CrystaLens now (Bausch&Lomb sold them, I don't remember to whom) could discontinue sales today and nobody could have one implanted until the patent runs out in nine years and anyone can manufacture them. The same goes for Google contacts.
Hmmm...blood sugar a little low? Suddenly all your adwords beside your google searches are for candy bars.
Illegal.
And, as I mentioned in my first post, if it turns out not to be as profitable as Google desires, away it will go.
This isn't a web service like gMail, it's a physical device. They can no more take it away than Amazon can take your hardcover copy of 1984.
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