Most diabetics find it very annoying to do a routine check up for their blood sugar levels that keep fluctuating most of the time. It’s an inevitable task that they must go through very often. But to their great relief, they can now replace this boring task by just wearing a pair of hydrogel contact lenses into which nanoparticles are embedded. Whenever there is a variation in the sugar level, the contact lenses indicate by changing their colors.
This super cool technology is developed by Jin Zhang, a Chemical and Biochemical professor at The University of Western Ontario. You might be wondering how these lenses change their colors when the sugar levels fluctuate. Well, the nanoparticles react with glucose molecules found in tears and this causes a chemical reaction that changes their color. However, it will be a wise idea to carry a pocket mirror to check if the color of the lenses has changed or not. This is such a welcoming gesture.
Although the wearer needs to keep a tab on the color change, it still is better than going through the pain of pin-pricks and blood drawing. Apparently, Zhang received $216,342 from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) on the 16th of December, 2009 in order to develop more technologies for multifunctional nanocomposites.
