Google is switching gears on an announced new project that could help to ease the daily struggles of those living with diabetes.
The tech giant is working on a smart contact lens that will measure a wearer's glucose level through tears, The Washington Post reported.
Still in the prototype phase, the soft contact lens features intricate, miniaturized electronics that can generate a reading once per second, according to a post on Google's official blog.
For the contact lens, "think: chips and sensors so small they look like bits of glitter, and an antenna thinner than a human hair," the post said. The prototype has a tiny wireless chip and a glucose sensor embedded between two layers of lens material.
Google also hopes to integrate a warning if blood sugar levels are dangerously low and is experimenting with tiny LED lights that could be a signal to the wearer.
While the project has a ways to go, Google is in talks with the Food and Drug Administration.
Around 382 million people and 25.8 million Americans have diabetes, which means that more than 8 percent of people in the United States have to prick themselves to test blood levels multiple times a day, The Washington Post reported.
Medical professionals have long been looking for ways to measure glucose through fluid in the eyes but haven't yet found a reliable method.
Google, which is working to find partners for the new project, hopes the smart lens will ease the burden for people living with diabetes in the near future.
"At a time when the International Diabetes Federation is declaring that the world is 'losing the battle' against diabetes, we thought this project was worth a shot," the company said in the blog post.
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