There were plenty of phones, laptops and wearables at Mobile World Congress 2024, but bio-enhancing devices were few and far between. However, they were not absent. Xpanceo this week unveiled four different smart contact lens prototypes that could one day become real products you put on your eyes.
Smart contact lenses may be the holy grail of wearables. I blame The Six Million Dollar Man a 1970s television show that featured a biomechanically enhanced former astronaut who had, among other things, a bionic eye that allowed him to zoom in and evaluate targets (there was even a data readout). I guess that's the dream of smart contact lenses, a category of wearable technology that has so far failed to take off.
Xpanceo does not lack ambition. Instead of just one smart contact lens, the company announced four versions:
- A holographic smart contact lens
- A biosensing lens
- A lens with nanoparticles for vision monitoring
- A transparent electronic lens
All of these lenses are as thin as traditional contact lenses, the company claims, but each has its own set of capabilities. The holographic lens, which Xpanceo demonstrated at MWC 2024, is essentially a mixed reality (XR) lens. In the demonstration, no one put the lens on their eyes; Instead, they looked through the lens on a platform to see a “hologram” of the nanoparticles used in the “monitoring” lens. Those nanoparticles could enable low-light vision and, yes, the ability to zoom (see? Steve Austin).
The biosensing lens, which could be used to measure eye pressure and alert the wearer to potential glaucoma problems, may look familiar. Nearly a decade ago, Google announced it was working with healthcare company Novartis to develop glasses that could measure glucose levels through the tears in a person's eyes.
It's unclear what happened to Google's project, but the path to true smart contact lenses is littered with delays and failures.
After spending years trying to perfect an in-eye AR display system, Mojo Vision laid off most of its staff last year and shifted to working on ultra-small microLED displays.
Another company, InWith, has been working to incorporate a mixed reality display system into Bausch & Lomb contact lenses. After Mojo Vision dropped out, InWith said TechnologyRadar “It appears we are the last man standing as Mojo has pulled out… We are still moving forward in the clinical arena and focusing on FDA regulatory issues at this time.” The company did not immediately respond to our requests for an update on either project, but the InWith site has not been updated since 2022.
A great vision
In some ways, Xpanceo's plans seem even more ambitious. Its four lens technologies appear to be a framework for an “all-in-one smart contact lens,” which could incorporate an ultra-small 1-pixel display for content, transparent technology for XR capabilities, and nanoparticles for monitoring capabilities. The company believes it could begin “final testing” as early as 2026.
I asked Xpanceo how close they are to bringing the “perfect lens” to market. I was told that the development of all the basic components was almost complete, but that there was still work to be done on a neurological interface, some AR elements, and improving its biosensors.
One thing that may differentiate Xpanceo's vision from, say, Google or InWith is the use of materials. Xpanceo told me that there are fundamental limitations to traditional optoelectronic materials that make them too bulky for their designs. Xpanceo, on the other hand, uses 2D materials that support “a more optimized and advanced smart contact lens design.” Xpanceo also uses flexible and transparent electronic components only a few nanometers thick.
AI Eye
However, the secret sauce might be (wait for it) AI. Xpanceo told me that its scientists are using AI to “predict the properties of new materials and devise methods to create customized materials.”
The company even promises the integration of a neural interface, which involves using the brain to control the smart lens instead of gestures, winks, blinks, or even specific eye movements.
Xpanceo's *ahem* vision for its smart contact lenses is futuristic and expansive. The company envisions its all-in-one lens tracking all kinds of health statistics, including glucose levels, blood pressure, cortisol, and more. Depending on the reading, the Xpanceo lens could display a message recommending that you skip that second cup of coffee because your blood pressure is already high.
These future lenses could even help with vision problems such as myopia and strabismus (crossed eyes), automatically adjusting vision on the fly and giving your brain perfect vision.
It all sounds fantastic, and while I support the idea of a super-smart contact lens that can show you a hidden world, focus on the distant, track your health, and proactively tell you how to manage it, no company has done it. successfully delivered on a single promise of smart contact lenses.
As Xpanceo admitted to me, no one has ever put their eyes on any version of the company's smart contact lenses. “No, not yet. Our lens is a medical device and we are currently in the pre-submission process for FDA approval for medical testing.”
Jeremy Kaplan contributed to this report.
