Google's smart contact lens can come to the rescue for diabetics

EYE wonder. Google has developed a smart contact lens that can help diabetics monitor their glucose levels.

This is a lens like no other with a miniature sensor allowing diabetics to monitor their glucose levels. Source: Google blog

GOOGLE is known for having an eye on innovation and now it is bringing innovation to the eye with a smart contact lens.

The company's secret Google X Lab, which works on speculative and strange future technologies such as the self-driving car, has now revealed on its blog a prototype lens made to monitor glucose levels for diabetics.

MORE: The top 10 gadgets to help run your life

It uses a tiny wireless chip and miniature glucose sensor embedded between layers of contact lens material. It collects readings of glucose once per second through a wearer's tears.

The sensor is so small it would appear like a speck of glitter to the wearer and it could eliminate the need for diabetics to spend a lot of time having to prick their fingers to draw blood to measure their glucose levels.

Google is looking into using the lens to serve as an early warning to any dangerous spikes or drops in glucose which could lead to organ damage, and future models could integrate tiny LEDs that will light up in such cases.

Currently it's still under the careful tinkering of engineers in white coats but its blog states it's in discussions with the FDA and is looking for partners to bring the device to market.

A use for diabetics could only be the beginning, this could be another step towards integrated technology where we could control our every day lives with the blink of an eye.