Google patents smart contact lenses to help the visually impaired

A few weeks ago emerged in network news that among the projects that Google intends to realize there are also smart contact lenses having different functionality including monitoring blood sugar and augmented reality applications.

In this regard, during the last hours has appeared online a new patent which refers to a device designed to help people with low vision to improve the perception of the environment that surrounds them. These are contact lenses that are home to a camera in them and whose purpose would be primarily to frame what is in the field of view of the user.


The images obtained by these special contact lenses can be processed locally and directly in real time or sent to a remote server so as to return in a short time a feedback through communication with a connected mobile device.

Lenses of this type may therefore find many applications. For example, in the vicinity of a road intersection the two lenses can be useful to scan the road and in the event that it detects a vehicle approaching alert the person with a sound message issued from the smartphone or reproduced by means of a headset.

However, it is appropriate to specify that despite having been deposited by Google at the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) documents in question makes no reference to the implementation of the technology described in products destined for the market in the short term. At the moment, therefore, it is not possible to know if and when Google decides to launch this technology.

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