Smart Lens

This is no ordinary contact lens. Aside from the metallic and blue rings – sure to make the wearer appear part-cyborg – the lens is equipped with pressure sensors and the ability to transmit data wirelessly. Currently in the early stages of clinical trials, the device was developed as a way to continuously measure changes in intraocular pressure – the fluid pressure inside the eye. A chronic increase in such pressure can lead to glaucoma and associated vision loss. Glaucoma sufferers currently have their eye pressure assessed a couple of times a year with a large machine called a tonometer. But such brief and occasional measurements can miss the considerable pressure fluctuations that occur at different times of day, or if the patient is stressed, for example. The wearable lens, by contrast, could provide pressure information over extended periods offering a better indication of patients’ health and of appropriate treatments.

Written by Ruth Williams

Ruth Williams

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Ruth is a freelance science journalist based in the US. She's a regular correspondent for The Scientist, and her work has appeared in The Lancet, Nature, Scientific American Mind, BBC Focus and elsewhere. Twitter @rooph

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• Image from the University of Liverpool
• BIOEG Biomechanical Engineering Group, University of Liverpool, UK
• Image copyright held by the original authors
• Press release from the University of Liverpool, October 2017