Balloons that provide broadband Internet, cars that drive themselves, walking sticks that have image-capturing capabilities.
Yes, Google is well-known for its ridiculous ideas, and today the tech giant has a new one: Smart contact lenses that can measure glucose content in the tears of people who have diabetes.
In a blog post, Google describes the technology behind the lenses, which use wireless chips and embedded sensors to notify diabetic users of fluctuating glucose levels.
Google has already tested prototypes that can measure glucose levels once per second. It is also looking into tiny LED lights that could potentially light up when glucose levels get too high or low.
“It’s still early days for this technology, but we’ve completed multiple clinical research studies which are helping to refine our prototype,” the company wrote. “We hope this could someday lead to a new way for people with diabetes to manage their disease.”
The tech giant is currently talking to the FDA about its product and is seeking partners for the project.
“We’ve always said that we’d seek out projects that seem a bit speculative or strange,” Google writes, “And at a time when the International Diabetes Federation is declaring that the world is “losing the battle” against diabetes, we thought this project was worth a shot.”
As Tom Warren from The Verge points out, this is actually an idea that Microsoft had more than two years ago.
