There were plenty of phones, laptops, and wearables at Mobile World Congress 2024, but there weren’t many bio-enhancement gadgets. Still, they weren’t completely absent. This week, Xpanceo showed four distinct prototypes for smart contact lenses, which could one day be worn in your eyes.
Perhaps the ultimate wearable is a pair of smart contact lenses. I point the finger at the 1970s TV series The Six Million Dollar Man, which had a biomechanically modified former astronaut with a bionic eye that allowed him to zoom in on and evaluate targets (complete with a data readout, among other things). I assume that’s the goal of the smart contact lens, a wearable technology category that hasn’t taken off just yet. Xpanceo is not without ambition. The business unveiled four iterations of smart contact lenses in place of only one:
- An intelligent holographic contact lens
- A lens for biosensing
- A lens loaded with nanoparticles for enhanced eyesight
- A clear lens for electronics
Smart Contacts: Promise or Pipe Dream?
The business says that all of these lenses are as thin as standard contacts, but each one has unique features. In essence, the holographic lens that Xpanceo showcased at MWC 2024 is a mixed reality (XR) lens. No one in the demo put the lens in their eyes; instead, they viewed a “hologram” of the nanoparticles used in the “supervision” lens by looking through the lens on a platform. It’s possible that the nanoparticles will allow for low-light vision and even zooming (see Steve Austin).
It might sound somewhat familiar to hear about the biosensing lens, which might be used to monitor eye pressure and notify the wearer of any glaucoma difficulties. Google said over ten years ago that it was collaborating with Novartis, a pharmaceutical business, to create contact lenses that could detect blood sugar levels through an individual’s tear film.
Although the fate of Google’s project is unknown, there have been numerous setbacks and delays on the path to real smart contact lenses. Mojo Vision fired the majority of its employees last year and shifted its focus to research on incredibly tiny microLED panels after years of trying to create an in-eye augmented reality display system.
The integration of a mixed reality display system into Bausch & Lomb contact lenses is the focus of another business, InWith. Following Mojo Vision’s withdrawal, InWith said to TechRadar, “It looks like we’re the last man standing because Mojo has withdrawn… We continue to move forward with entering clinical trials and are currently concentrating on FDA regulatory matters.” InWith informed us this week that, although its website hasn’t been updated since 2022, “We’re still in the game…Pay attention.“
Ambitious All-in-One Lens Tech
Xpanceo’s goals seem even more grandiose in several regards. Its four lens technologies seem to provide a foundation for an “all-in-one smart contact lens,” which would include nanoparticles for supervision, a transparent technology for XR capabilities, and an incredibly small, 1-pixel screen for content. The business thinks that “final tests” might begin as early as 2026.
I inquired of Xpanceo how near they were to release the “ideal lens” for consumers. They informed me that while most of the fundamental components had been developed, work still needed to be done on the neural interface, a few augmented reality components, and enhancing the biosensors.
The usage of materials is one element that could distinguish Xpanceo’s vision from, say, that of Google or InWith. According to Xpanceo, typical optoelectronic materials are too large for their designs due to basic restrictions. The 2D materials used by Xpanceo, in contrast, enable “a more streamlined and advanced smart contact lens design.” Moreover, Xpanceo uses translucent, flexible electronics that are only a few nanometers thick.
Vision AI
However, AI could be the key ingredient. According to Xpanceo, its experts are employing artificial intelligence (AI) to “predict the properties of new materials and devise methods for creating custom materials.” The incorporation of a neural interface—which suggests utilizing your brain to control the smart lens instead of motions like winking, blinking, or even specific eye movements—is another promise made by the firm.
The *ahem* ambitious and futuristic Xpanceo plan for its smart contact lenses is impressive. The business plans to track a variety of health metrics with its all-in-one lens, such as blood pressure, cortisol, glucose levels, and more. Xpanceo’s lens may indicate, based on the reading, that you shouldn’t drink that second cup of coffee as your blood pressure is already elevated. Future glasses with this ability to automatically change the image on the fly and provide your brain with perfect vision may even be able to aid with vision issues like myopia and strabismus (crossed eyes).
All of this sounds amazing, and while I’m all for super smart contact lenses that can track your health and alert you to potential problems, uncover hidden worlds, and focus distant objects, no company has yet to deliver on even one smart contact lens promise. No one has ever placed any kind of Xpanceo smart contact lenses in their eyes, the business acknowledged to me. “Not just yet, no. We are presently pre-submitting our lens for FDA approval for medical testing because it is a medical device.“
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