Smart ‘PDMS’ Contact Lenses – Truly Smart or Simply Wacky?

These beauties caught my eye (yes, yes, I’m aware of the pun) … but being a contact lens wearer myself, this particular story was one I couldn’t not be interested in. These so called “Smart” contact lenses apparently measure pressure within the eye and dispense medication accordingly.

Yes! Can you believe it? These little contact lenses (apparently made from a material known as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) could be the answer to early glaucoma detection and treatment.

Two biomedical engineers, at UC Davis, Tingrui Pan and Hailin Cong devised these lenses by placing powdered silver onto this previously mentioned (PDMS) to create conductive wires. These wires are sensitive enough that they can record differential pressure states within the eye and send this data to a computer to be examined by healthcare professionals!

I know it all sounds rather Sci-Fi and completely out of this world but this could be the dawning of a new era in healthcare technology. Gone will be the days of long queues, waiting for a bully in a white coat to attack us with senseless needles and prod us in peculiar places, all in the name of healthcare!

According to Science Daily, the researchers are planning on starting tests with humans as soon as they get approval for their ingenious design. We can only hope it’s before our next abusive consultation!

[via Science Daily]