Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis has signed an agreement with Google to develop a "smart" contact lenses that allow diabetics to continuously monitor blood glucose levels without the need to pierce the skin and also in the "advanced" mode to adjust the focal length to improve a person's vision.
Lens will measure blood sugar, analyzing the concentration of glucose in the tear fluid eyes and transmit the data wirelessly to a smartphone or tablet. According to the developers, this development will change the lives of millions of diabetics. Now many of them have several times a day to take a blood test to measure the level of glucose. According to the WHO, now all over the world there are about 382 million people with diabetes.
Many people with type 1 diabetes, as well as some type 2 diabetics glucose levels are monitored by other means, but they are mostly mobile and no expensive or commercially available. New smart lenses promise to be cheap enough and does not require permanent blood test.
The second element of the agreement, Google is presbyopia - a disease with age when the human eye can not focus on a near object. In Novartis said that the new technology in the lenses will work as auto-focus camera that will restore your eyes to the possibility of concentration on close objects.
Financial details of the agreement between Google and Novartis has not yet been disclosed.Recall that the prototype of a new contact lens Google demonstrated in January this year.The device connects to mobile devices, while the transmitter is miniature in the lens and does not interfere with vision.