Google has been turning a lot of heads these past few months as more news about its bold first step into the world of wearable technology, the Google Glass, continues to pick up steam in the tech community for its vast potential, controversy and somewhat strange look. However, with wearable technology rapidly becoming the wave of the future, the company has shown no plans of stopping the innovation any time soon. This is further evident by its newest announcement in the field of wearable's, its Smart Contact Lens.
The prototype that Google has unveiled is meant to measure glucose levels in tears, providing people with diabetes an easy but constant way to keep track of their levels. According to the Washington Post, a tiny pinhole in the lens lets tear fluid seep over the glucose monitor to get regular readings. Right now the company said it can get a level reading once every second. The lens also features a tiny antenna, capacitor and controller so that the information gathered from the lens can move from the eye to a device. This would mean that all the information gathered from the device can be viewed on a monitor.
Given the sensitive nature of this data, one of the biggest questions that's come up is just what Google will be doing in terms of storing all of this data securely. It's a questions that Google was prepared to answer before even unveiling the new technology. According to Joseph Lorenzo Hall, chief technologist at the Center for Democracy & Technology, who was briefed on the lens before the company's announcement on Thursday, Google assured customers that the data would not be added to the company's banks of personal information gathered from other services like Google+.
"The data will never hit Google's servers," he said. "That's a forward-thinking affirmative claim that they're making. That is important."
Google's project co-founders appear to have taken the diabetes cause very seriously saying "it's disruptive, and it's painful... As a result, many people with diabetes check their blood glucose less often than they should."
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