'Chat' contact lenses with smartphones, smartwatch via wifi

Contact lenses that wirelessly connect to mobile phones and smartwatches to transmit health information, are about to come true thanks to a new technology.

The technology called "distributed communication" works by turning the Bluetooth signals generated by the clock into wifi transmission signals that smartphones can receive. This technology basically takes over a signal and uses it to help overcome energy requirements for many small devices, such as brain implants, contact lenses and credit cards.

Sending data can quickly consume large amounts of energy, so we need alternative solutions to help small devices communicate with computers and smartphones.

Wireless connections to implant devices can radically alter the way we control chronic diseases.

Vikram Iyer, an electronics engineer from Washington University (USA), who led the study, explains: "Wireless connection to implantable devices can completely change the way we control. For example, contact lenses can monitor blood sugar levels in diabetics' tears and send alerts to their phones when blood sugar drops. "

The research of Mr. Iyer and colleagues is the first work to demonstrate that energy-limiting devices can "converse" with other computers via a standard wifi connection. This is achieved by a communication technology called scattering , which allows devices to exchange information by reflecting existing signals.

According to Dr. Vamsi Talla, co-author of the study, instead of having to generate wifi signals themselves, new technology creates wifi by taking advantage of Bluetooth signal transmission from nearby mobile devices, such as smartwatch. They call this "distributed communication" technology .

In an experiment, researchers used a smartwatch to transmit Bluetooth signals to a contact lens with an antenna attached. They turned the Bluetooth signal into a signal that can encrypt data like a wifi signal.

The team claims that their technology could be used to create new smart credit tests, allowing them to communicate directly with each other and thus help customers transfer money to each other just by touch the card. It also has the ability to allow people to share bill payments by overlapping cards on a table.

In the field of medicine, in addition to contact lenses, the team also built an implantable neuronal recording device , capable of communicating directly with smartphones and smartwatch. Devices can be used as brain implants to treat diseases like Parkinson's or epilepsy.