The super-thin battery that could power smart contact lenses
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
- Scientist Lee Seok Woo said a scene from a "Mission Impossible" movie inspired his latest invention: batteries for smart contact lenses.
In the fourth film of the series, an agent wears contact lenses capable of facial recognition and eye tracking. Lee wanted to make that lens a reality.
"I was thinking, 'How can I work in this field of smart contact lenses?'" the Nanyang Technological University's School of Electrical and Electronical Engineering associate professor told CNBC's "The Edge."
Lee's expertise in battery components served as the jumping off point for his foray into wearable technology. He realized smart contact lenses would need safe and compact batteries, which would be crucial for advancing development of these devices.
Contact lenses themselves are extremely thin, at 0.5 mm, thus the size and flexibility of these batteries are key to preventing user discomfort.
"The thickness of our battery is about 0.2 mm, which is about twice the thickness of a human hair," Lee said.
Lee and his team invented a battery that can be powered using a biocompatible saline solution as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries, which contain flammable materials.
This new battery can be charged using a conventional wire method, or a chemical method. The battery is coated with glucose and, when dipped into saline solution, the glucose will react with the sodium and chloride ions to charge it.
After eight hours of chemical charging, the battery can reach 80% of its full capacity. Then, it can be used for a couple of hours during the day.
However, there is another unusual way to power the battery.
"Tear solution also contains glucose. That means, while you're wearing the contact lens, your tears can also charge the battery," Lee said.
"If you cry more, then you can charge your battery more."
Currently, the capacity and voltage of the battery is still very low. Using the two methods, the battery can only produce a voltage of approximately 0.3V - 0.6V. The standard voltage for one AA battery is 1.5V.
At this stage, that output is insufficient for powering data storage or internet connection, but the team is working to develop the battery's specifications.
A potential partner Lee has identified is in health care.
"We use glucose as a biofuel. There are many diabetic patients who check their glucose level every day," Lee said.
"We studied how we can detect glucose level while the user is wearing the contact lens."
Despite the potential prospects of such an innovation, Lee thinks that costs should be kept low, considering the capacity of the batteries.
"Once it goes into very serious commercialization, the cost of the battery should only be a few dollars."
#CNBC #Technology #BatteryTechnology
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The power of tears 🥲👍
Another 4 years of Biden and it'll be powered forever
hold on bro i need to watch something sad cause my smart contact is low on battery
but wait, here is 15 seconds ad before you can do that.
Tears are always released in small amounts to lubricate your eyes. It is probably this tears that charges it
Q: Why are you crying?
A: I'm just charging my smart contact..
😅
If it can be powered with tears, then I am an nuclear reactor
2.5v is a lot more than i expected. Very interesting work!
no way am i going to put something like this in my eyes
You put it on your eye not in it 😊
You will eat ze bugs.
they will make it mandatory.
That's what people said about a lot of things. We use them every day now
wow ! the idea to utilise tears as a power source is incredible.
I have a hard time wearing regular glasses- let alone contact lenses
What about solar to charge it?
Really cool innovation
So if someone starts to cry and sheds lots of tears and those tears have lots of salt creating more electricity which will enhance burning the eyes make sense to me
I am reminded of theranos, tiny capsule of blood, solve everything
Great innovation
warning: vaporware!
I wonder why not use standard radio frequencies to keep it recharged.
Interesting idea🤔
Interesting breaktrough.
Once it's support camera it will be banned in a lot of country
Singaporean Chinese nice 👍🏼😊
Sell the idea to Apple!
Notice no one wore the lenses.
It's a cool concept, but give it another half decade.
More like a few decades. And the hardest challenge here is not even the battery itself, but all the electronics that does not exist yet.
These are proof of concepts
battery on eyes? no thanks
There's definitely a lot more than what the video showed. It's better you decide after reading about the whole thing
This guy did not come up with this people knew this for a long time
Imagine that catching fire in ur lenses
All I see is a burning Tesla that is stuck to our eyes.
They are not using lithium...
Did you even watch the video?
Your comprehension skill is not found.
No way am i putting that contack in my eye .what if you cry to much and it burns your eye ball. No thank you
So when would we have something like eye lens camera like Mission Impossible ghost protocol?
Solar chrge them... Duh lol
Battery leak in your eyes
kind of useless
Almost every proof of concept is kind of useless. Technology breakthroughs often need decades to hit the market.
Just think about how your ancestors developed their eyes and eyesight. This stuff is nonsense
?
no wonder singapore sucks