The eye lens includes electronic communication components

Apr 30, 2016 14:30 GMT  ·  By

This past Thursday, Google filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office that describes a method of inserting a smart contact lens directly into your eyeball.

According to the patent's description, the device is supposed to help the eye focus light onto the retina, but it also includes components for external communication and data storage.

Device insertion would require a medical procedure

Based on the device's specifications, the procedure requires the removal of the natural eye lens from the lens capsule. Doctors would then inject a fluid in this space, along with the lens' electronic components.

The fluid would solidify, and the eye's natural internal pressure would keep the device in place.

Furthermore, the lens' electrical component includes a radio communications system that allows an external device to send and receive data. Powering the eye lens components is done wirelessly from a nearby device.

This is Google's second smart eye lens project

The patent lists Andrew Jason Conrad as the device's inventor. Conrad is the CEO of Verily, a company collaborating with Alphabet, Google's parent company.

Verily is helping Google develop its smart contact lens that sits on top of a person's eye and monitors glucose levels in real time. The project, announced in March 2015, never made it out of a planning stage.

Other smart contact lens projects developed in the past months include one from Swiss healthcare startup Sensimed in March 2016, and one from Samsung, announced at the start of the month.

Sensimed's contact lens is said to help cure glaucoma. On the other hand, Samsung's project is only for entertainment purposes, as a new method of delivering augmented reality imagery from your smart devices to your eye.

The patent is not legally binding yet, and the US Patent and Trademark Office needs to approve it first.

Google's eye lens technical blueprints
Google's eye lens technical blueprints

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A closer look at the eye lens
Google's eye lens technical blueprints
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