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Scientists Develop Glucose-Tracking Smart Contact Lenses Comfortable Enough To Wear (engadget.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the twenty-twenty dept.

A team of Korean scientists have developed a smart lens that could help diabetics track blood glucose levels while remaining stretchable enough to be comfortable and transparent enough to preserve vision. Engadget reports: The lens achieves its flexibility thanks to a design that puts its electronics into isolated pockets linked by stretchable conductors. There's also an elastic material in between that spreads the strain to prevent the electronics from breaking when you pinch the lens. And when the refractive indices all line up, you should get a lens that's as transparent as possible and largely stays out of your way. The sensor in question is straightforward: an LED light stays on as long as glucose levels are normal, and shuts off when something's wrong. Power comes through a metal nanofiber antenna that draws from a nearby power source coil. That's about the only major drawback -- the low conductivity of the antenna means that you can't just tuck the coil wherever it's convenient. The co-author of the study, Jang-Ung Park, told IEEE Spectrum that a commercial version of the contact lens should arrive within the next five years.

35 comments

  1. How about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    stop eating junk and you won't get diabetes in teh first flace

    1. Re:How about by Kokuyo · · Score: -1, Troll

      The Dumb is strong in this one.

    2. Re:How about by Aighearach · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      I can counts to 2? I can haz cheeseburger?

    3. Re:How about by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 2, Informative

      Alternately, if you don't let the doctor remove your pancreas when needed, you won't have diabetes in the first place.

      Of course, you may be dead, but that's a small price to pay for no diabetes, right?

      Yes, some of us have diabetes for reasons completely unrelated to eating junk....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    4. Re:How about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      The parent actually has a very good point. How does excess glucose get into the bloodstream? Through your mouth!

      What foods contain glucose? With a few minor exceptions, carbohydrates. So if you avoid eating carbohydrates, you shouldn't run any risk of diabetes.

      Even if you have diabetes, avoiding virtually all carbohydrates sometimes leads to full remission of the disease.

    5. Re:How about by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      a) Who marked this as troll?

      b) It doesn't take a doctor removing your pancreas. I know several people who were just born diabetic, no surgery or shitty diet required. It's called type 1.

    6. Re: How about by slazzy · · Score: 1

      There's a lot of us who's own bodies attacked and killed off the islet cells within the pancreas, myself and millions of others...

      --
      Website Just Down For Me? Find out
  2. Everything will fail by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You'll see.

    1. Re:Everything will fail by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      Its not just redundant, but doubly redundant!

      As I diabetic, I can tell when my blood sugar is high - my eyes hurt and it becomes harder to see. In fact, for over a year before I was diagnosed, I kept going to doctors, opticians and even the eye hospital complaining my eyes hurt. They all said "There is nothing wrong with your eyes". As soon as I was diagnosed and given Metformin, the discomfort went away - but it comes back if my blood sugar gets high.

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  3. free the (also) innocent stem cells by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    cease fire stand down.. it only works if everybody does it.. see you there

  4. Beware the SECRET SOCIETY that permeates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    the eyeball business. This needs to be EXPOSED because it will otherwise bring this government down. It's time to act, comrade.

    1. Re:Beware the SECRET SOCIETY that permeates by Hal_Porter · · Score: -1, Offtopic

      There's a memorably nasty moment in Dune where Tleilaxu agents use a stone burner to blind Paul Atreides and a lot of other people. Paul offers to buy Tleilaxu metal eyes for his men but both he and them worry the Tleilaxu eyes might affect their perception in devious ways.

      http://www.readsbird.com/dune-...

      "They've fled Arrakis with the stolen worm," Paul said. "Even if I freed you now, Korba, Shai-hulud would have your water for your part in this. Why don't I free you, Korba? Think of all those men whose eyes were taken, the men who cannot see as I see. They have families and friends, Korba. Where could you hide from them?"

      "It was an accident," Korba pleaded. "Anyway, they're getting Tleilaxu ..." Again, he subsided.

      "Who knows what bondage goes with metal eyes?" Paul asked.

      The interesting thing about Dune is that the protagonist is a Messiah like character who plunges the galaxy into a hellish holy war. Meanwhile the antagonists are corrupt political types with access to advanced technology like AI which the more religious parts of the galaxy have banned following the 'Butlerian Jihad'.

      The similarity between Paul and someone like Bin Laden or Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is kind of obvious now, even though Dune and Dune Messiah were written back in the 60's. Paul's holy warriors are even called Fedaykin, a mutation of the Arabic word Fedayeen. Saddam set up the Fedayeen Saddam which arguably mutated into ISIS.

      I.e. when you read it now you kind of sympathize with the devious Bene Gesserit, Tleilaxu and Ixians who attempt to tame or destroy Paul and stop his jihad from destroying their civilisation. Then again Frank Herbert wanted to deconstruct the idea of infallible heroes.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      "The bottom line of the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better [to] rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes." He wrote in 1985, "Dune was aimed at this whole idea of the infallible leader because my view of history says that mistakes made by a leader (or made in a leader's name) are amplified by the numbers who follow without question."

      --
      echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  5. Don't tell Katy Perry because she's too busy doing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    herself.

    https://gfycat.com/YearlyPortl...

    MY GAWD!

  6. They're RUSSIAN BOTS!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    They're not real contact lenses! They're actually subversive RUSSIAN BOTS!!!

  7. Totally Backwards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why would the LED be ON to signify 'normal'? Seems like the last thing I'd want is a light shining in my eye most of the time. Seems like a red blip for HIGH glucose and a blue blip for LOW would be great, or at least something similar.

    1. Re:Totally Backwards? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      Why would the LED be ON to signify 'normal'? Seems like the last thing I'd want is a light shining in my eye most of the time. Seems like a red blip for HIGH glucose and a blue blip for LOW would be great, or at least something similar.

      Duh.

      How would you distinguish between "broken" and "flat battery" using your armchair-engineer methodology?

      --
      No sig today...
    2. Re:Totally Backwards? by Kenneth+Stephen · · Score: 2

      It doesn't seem like the chosen approach can distinguish between the two either. I'm with the OP. If there is a reason why this approach was chosen, it would be good to know.

      --

      There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.

    3. Re:Totally Backwards? by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 1

      It doesn't seem like the chosen approach can distinguish between the two either.

      When you only have two states, you can't distinguish among three conditions. What you can do, however, is cluster all the "bad" conditions together, which is what they did here:

      LED on = copacetic.
      LED off = something's wrong = notification to user so they can fix it.

      If there is a reason why this approach was chosen, it would be good to know.

      As GP said, if LED off was the happy state, you could have a power or other issue with the lens and think everything was fine in the neighborhood while your blood sugar was off the charts.

      "Fail safe" is (or used to be, and still should be) standard design practice.

    4. Re:Totally Backwards? by Kenneth+Stephen · · Score: 1

      The problem with this is that the LED off state could tell the user that there is a blood sugar problem when there really isn't one. And for diabetics, fixing a problem which isn't there can result in a condition that is just as dangerous / life-threatening. So, this isn't fail-safe by any means.

      I agree with you, that two states can't distinguish between three conditions. But until the device fixes that problem, the chosen approach is just as bad as the one the OP was advocating (and me too). In that case, why not choose the more user-friendly one?

      --

      There is no such thing as luck. Luck is nothing but an absence of bad luck.

    5. Re:Totally Backwards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Easily. The goofy wireless power module is the battery. When it runs down it should beep annoyingly. Goofy wireless power module doesn't detect receiver, beep again.

  8. Re:Don't tell Katy Perry because she's too busy do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    http://sendvid.com/usc56itb

    Same as the other one, uncut, and a bit gross.

  9. Idiot light is backward? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I don't understand this. The light goes out when there is a poblem? Backward of everything else in the world? Who sees this light?

    1. Re:Idiot light is backward? by Joce640k · · Score: 1

      You're not thinking hard enough. People need to know if the battery is working or not.

      --
      No sig today...
  10. Re:Don't tell Katy Perry because she's too busy do by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Hmmm. That is unexpected. Turns out, unsurprisingly, that it's not her, though I couldn't tell (I'm not a Katy Perry fan... until now). Vice covers the how'd they do that in detail.

    We Are Truly Fucked: Everyone Is Making AI-Generated Fake Porn Now

    https://motherboard.vice.com/e...

    A user-friendly application has resulted in an explosion of convincing face-swap porn.

  11. Comfortable enough? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You'll want to scratch it out of your eyes but it's "comfortable enough" to wear!

  12. Nice description by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    Lenses that you can actually _wear_ and also you can _see_ something though it?

    I'm flabbergasted. I guess the previous version were dark shot-glasses.

  13. Glucose monitor by freeze128 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why does it need to be in your eye? That seems like the most dangerous place for a glucose monitor. It's likely to risk infection or scratch your cornea or something. What about a glucose-sensing tattoo on your arm or something?

    1. Re:Glucose monitor by misexistentialist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      because the eye constantly squirts out bodily fluid

    2. Re:Glucose monitor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Existing glucose monitors require a blood sample from a pinprick to the skin. This system is a bit better in that it eliminates that need.

  14. Link to the actual study by SlaveToTheGrind · · Score: 4, Informative

    With a lot more details and illustrations. As the summary hinted, the big issue appears to be how close the wireless power coil has to be to the lens: 5mm in testing.

    http://advances.sciencemag.org...

    1. Re:Link to the actual study by WallyL · · Score: 1

      I hope this is the first step, and over time they can get a power source farther and farther away, maybe to be worn as an earring or nose-ring or necklace.

  15. Wasn't this already done... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    by that company that supposedly no longer innovates? https://www.visionaware.org/blog/visionaware-blog/googles-prototype-smart-contact-lens-measuring-blood-glucose-levels-for-people-with-diabetes-1418/12

  16. A binary flag (good/bad) is useless by RandCraw · · Score: 1

    T1 and T2 diabetics need much more information than a simple binary +/-.

    To be useful, a glucometer must provide a continuous readout of your glucose level. Based on that number, 1) a T1 knows how much insulin to inject, or 2) a T2 knows how much excess glucose they just ate, so they can adjust their diet or medication dose.

    Raising a binary flag is worthless. This company's gadget is a gimmick, intended to announce victory before a competitor can steal their thunder with a *real* product.

  17. Most Type 2 Diabetes can be reversed via diet by Paul+Fernhout · · Score: 1

    A high tech solution for monitoring blood sugar sounds good especially for type 1 diabetics -- but for most people with type 2 it would be better to just reverse the disease entirely.

    Example books on how to do this:
    https://www.drfuhrman.com/shop...
    http://media.wholefoodsmarket....

    As Dr. Joel Fuhrman says, most prescriptions for drugs for chronic diseases are just permission slips keep doing unhealthy behavior.

    tl;dr -- Eat (whole) food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

    And even Type 1 diabetes can be greatly improved by diet so it is more easily manageable with less complications.

    Easier said then done of course. A good social support network and supportive family makes a big difference. Good luck!

    --
    A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
  18. Needs to include AI image processing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Then, whenever the wearer sees a huge cake, the lenses could blank it out.