Development of Smart 'Contact Lens' for Glaucoma Diagnosis Without Hospital Visit

Professor Park Jang-ung, Kim Hong-gyun, and Kim Dae-woo's Team Successfully Installs Wireless Communication Circuit on Thin Contact Lenses

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] A soft contact lens that can measure intraocular pressure (IOP) and diagnose glaucoma while living daily life without visiting a hospital has been developed. It features a built-in wireless communication circuit, allowing convenient use with a smartphone without separate equipment.

On the 12th, the Korea Research Foundation announced that a joint research team led by Professors Park Jang-ung, Kim Hong-gyun, and Kim Dae-woo developed a soft contact lens equipped with a high-sensitivity IOP sensor capable of detecting minute IOP changes and a wireless circuit that can communicate wirelessly with a smartphone.

Until now, to prevent and diagnose glaucoma, it was necessary to visit a hospital and use bulky measuring devices for a long time to measure long-term changes in IOP. Although elastic and transparent smart contact lenses worn on the human eye had already been developed for IOP measurement, wireless communication was impossible, making hospital visits inevitable.

The research team succeeded in developing technology to wirelessly transmit IOP values measured by the smart contact lens to a smartphone. Without needing to visit a hospital, simply wearing the contact lens allows automatic continuous monitoring of IOP during daily life. The measured values are recorded wirelessly on a smartphone app and transmitted to the hospital.

The research team connected a high-sensitivity IOP sensor made of 300-nanometer (nm) thick elastic ultra-thin silicon to a wireless communication circuit using elastic electrodes, producing a device similar in thickness to an actual soft contact lens, maintaining elasticity and wearability. To eliminate the risk of electric shock, electronic components such as the sensor and wireless communication circuit were completely encapsulated with soft contact lens material. A trial wear test on 10 people showed almost no heat generation during operation, and no one experienced foreign body sensation or corneal injury. However, for actual commercialization, it must pass a phase 3 clinical trial involving more than 1,000 subjects.

The research results were published on the 3rd in the international journal in the field of biotechnology, Nature Biomedical Engineering.

Professor Park Jang-ung said, "It has become possible to wirelessly monitor minute IOP changes in daily life," adding, "It is expected to be suitable as a platform technology for implementing various types of mobile healthcare wearable devices."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.