Google is going beyond smart glasses and “wearable” contact lenses — its latest patent envisions a smart lens that would be injected into a user’s eyes, replacing the eye’s natural lens.
Called intraocular, this type of contact lens features existing technology used to treat cataracts and myopia, but has never before been used with accompanying tech components.
Users or doctors would in theory be able to connect to these smart lenses from other devices.According to the patent filing, the process of inserting the lens would include using a laser to form a hole in the lens capsule of an eye, fragmenting the natural lens and removing it, then inserting a binding fluid and positioning a device containing an electronic lens within it before the fluid solidifies.
Google’s smart lens would have an accommodation sensor, a controller, data storage, antenna and a “rechargeable thin-film solid-state battery” to provide power. As for recharging, it would be conducted sans any wires whatsoever, relying solely on radio-frequency energy.
Also, users or doctors would in theory be able to connect to these smart lenses from other devices, enabling novel applications like remote diagnosis, monitoring, augmented reality views, and more.
A patent filing is just a first step, and chances are we’ll have to wait for another few years before this sort of smart lens is available to the general public. In the meantime, Google is pursuing its other smart contact lens idea, the one designed to measure blood glucose levels from a tear, and has teamed-up with Novartis to bring this product to the market in the next few years. Naturally, we’ll be watching this space…