A team in Electrical and Computer Engineering at National Chao Tung University (NCTU) has successfully invented a smart contact lens to help doctors diagnose eye diseases such as Dry Eye Syndrome (DES). The lens will go through the clinical test in 2020. Google had carried out a similar project, but it was terminated in 2018. Therefore, the research of NCTU is world-leading. Other than eye diseases, the smart contact lens can also be used for entertainment, enabling more applications for AR glasses.
Smart contact lens with AR technology, which commonly appears in science-fiction movies, may come true in the near future. Prof. Jin-Chern Chiou in NCTU and his team spend nice years developing smart contact lenses and Google. Their contact lens can diagnose Dry Eye Syndrome (DES) and do the follow-up tracks. They can also be used in the entertainment industry.
Smart Contact Lens by NCTU ECE, Assisting Doctors Diagnosing DES
2019 FUTEX will be held in Taipei World Trade Center from 5th to 8th Dec. by the Ministry of Science and Technology. There are eleven products with the world''s leading technologies. Among all the others, Prof. Chiou and his team from NCTU ECE have the most attractive "smart contact lens."
Chiou pointed out that they used Dry Eye Syndrome (DES) as the targeting disease and developed the smart contact lens detector, simultaneously detecting multiple DES parameters. It can assist doctors in detecting DES, choosing medicines, and evaluating their effectiveness, but it can also help doctors understand the treatment condition and the degree of recoveries.
Chiou and his team spent nine years developing the smart contact lens. Recently, the lens has passed the animal experiment and will go through the human experiment next year.
Google Tried to Embed Microsensor on Contacts, but The Project was Terminated.
According to Chiou, people have tried implementing the technology, but they failed. For example, Google had carried out a project about "smart contact lens." By putting a microsensor on the contact lens, they wished to detect the blood sugar changes via diabetic patients'' tears. However, this project was terminated last year.
Besides diagnosing and tracking DES, Chiou said that this technology would combine AR applications in the future. It could be used in the gaming and entertainment industry. Moreover, it could also be used for vision correction.