Tuesday, July 15, 2014

UPDATE: Google Gets A Highly Credible Partner -- In Novartis/Alcon -- To Develop Its Glucose Monitoring Contact Lenses


Back around Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day 2014, we highlighted a then-nascent Google-hardware project. Well, those folks at Google don't just sit around -- on good ideas.

Overnight, we learn that Novartis has signed on to help bring the concept to market. [Recall that Novaris now owns Alcon, here.] The current iteration will continuosly monitor sugar levels in tear-flow. Later versions may well adjust the contacts' optics, via microelectric charges, to sharpen the focus of diabetes patients' vision -- in near real time, via bluetooth, based on the sugar readings. Amazing. Via the British Globe and Mail online, then:

. . . .Swiss drugmaker Novartis has struck an agreement with Google to develop “smart” contact lenses that would help diabetics track their blood glucose levels or restore the eye’s ability to focus.

The device for diabetics would measure glucose in tear fluid and send the data wirelessly to a mobile device, Novartis said. The technology is potentially life-changing for many diabetics, who prick their fingers as many as 10 times daily to check their body’s production of the sugar. . . .


Yes, the future arrives -- right now. Is MRL up to the accelerating challenges -- of eye-blinking innovation -- and complex partnerships -- all in one? We shall see.

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