Good news! Sounds intriguing! I am already rubbing my eyes already in anticipation of smart contact lenses! 😊
More power to and smarts for the eyes!
"The potential use cases for smart contacts are compelling and varied. Pop a lens on your eye and monitor health metrics like glucose levels; receive targeted drug delivery for ocular diseases; experience augmented reality and read news updates with displays of information literally in your face. ...
The harvesting occurs literally in the blink of an eye: When the eye is completely open, the harvester is off. Then when the eye starts to blink, the tear electrolytes meet the magnesium anode, causing an oxidation reaction and the generation of electrons. Finally the tear electrolytes come into contact with both an anode and the platinum cathode, creating more energy through further oxidation on the surface of the anode and oxygen reduction on the surface of the cathode. The electrodes are kept from fouling by the motion of the eyelid and continual refreshing of the tears. ...
Glaucoma is known as the silent thief of sight ..."
Glaucoma is known as the silent thief of sight ..."
From the abstract:
"On-the-eye microsystems such as smart contacts for vision correction, health monitoring, drug delivery, and displaying information represent a new emerging class of low-profile (≤ 1 mm) wireless microsystems that conform to the curvature of the eyeball surface. The implementation of suitable low-profile power sources for eye-based microsystems on curved substrates is a major technical challenge addressed in this paper. The fabrication and characterization of a hybrid energy generation unit composed of a flexible silicon solar cell and eye-blinking activated Mg–O2 metal–air harvester capable of sustainably supplying electrical power to smart ocular devices are reported. The encapsulated photovoltaic device provides a DC output with a power density of 42.4 µW cm−2 and 2.5 mW cm−2 under indoor and outdoor lighting conditions, respectively. The eye-blinking activated Mg–air harvester delivers pulsed power output with a maximum power density of 1.3 mW cm−2. A power management circuit with an integrated 11 mF supercapacitor is used to convert the harvesters’ pulsed voltages to DC, boost up the voltages, and continuously deliver ≈150 µW at a stable 3.3 V DC output. Uniquely, in contrast to wireless power transfer, the power pack continuously generates electric power and does not require any type of external accessories for operation."
Power Scavenging Microsystem for Smart Contact Lenses (open access)
Fig. 1 Optoelectronic properties of the flexible silicon solar cells under indoor and outdoor lighting conditions; a) one individual cell, b) series connections between ten cells, and c) flexible silicon solar cell encapsulated in a PDMS contact
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