Could your contact lenses be smarter than you are?

Image courtesy of Flickr user lizzardo.

Are you one of those people who always remembers to put in your contact lenses (after all, they make you look cuter), but never remember to make a doctor's appointment or have those pesky lab tests done? Wouldn't it be wild if your contact lenses could remember to check your blood sugar or electrolyte or cholesterol levels and update you with a text message about your health status?

Believe it or not, the surface of your eyes contains the same bio markers as your blood, and theoretically could transmit information about your cholesterol, sodium, potassium and glucose levels to smart contact lenses designed to monitor and convey information via radio frequency to your smartphone or computer.

It sounds like science fiction, but a team, led by Babak Parviz, Ph.D., at Washington University has actually been working on the new bionic lens technology that may someday not only be able to perform noninvasive, continuous monitoring of the human body, but also perhaps project floating images right in front of your eyes.

It boggles the mind to imagine the amazing potential academic and medical uses for such hands-free access to a personal computer screen contained in the eyes. Okay, so it also kind of boggles the mind to imagine the myriad ways human beings could get up to ridiculousness with such a device, but what's that old adage? Sometimes with great power comes great stupidity? I guess that's part of what makes the human race so fascinating and special, but I digress.

If you'd like to learn more, read Smart contact lenses keep an eye on your health, and Smart contact lenses for health and head-up displays.

Do you wear contacts? Would you like a pair that lets you check your Facebook status during a business meeting, seemingly without taking your eyes off your manager's boring PowerPoint? Let us know in the TalkBacks below.