Why there is no clean “first”
The title promises a first smart contact lens, but the history does not support a single one. “Smart” has been applied to lenses with very different features: a sensor that records a physical measurement, a chemical sensor, an antenna that powers a circuit, a light that turns on, or even a display. Each of these has its own first demonstration by a different group, in a different year, often with limited public detail. It is more honest to describe several lines of work than to name a winner.
The first parts: antennas, circuits and sensors
The basic building blocks came from advances in miniaturization during the 1990s and 2000s. Small coils could receive power wirelessly from a nearby transmitter, in the same way that radio-frequency identification tags work. Chips could be made small enough to sit near the edge of a lens, outside the pupil. And flexible or stretchable circuit materials let electronics bend with the curve of the eye. Together these made it conceivable to put a working circuit on a lens.
Many early reports came from university labs, with prototypes tested on models of the eye, on animal eyes, or in some cases in short trials with volunteers.
A lens that senses eye pressure
The best-documented sensor lens measures changes in the curvature of the eye caused by pressure variations. Developed by a Swiss company, with the aim of helping specialists follow patterns of pressure over a full day and night in people with glaucoma, it used a strain gauge in a silicone lens and a small antenna that sent data to a recorder worn nearby. The lens was approved for sale in Europe around 2009 and has been used in clinics. It measures relative changes in pressure through changes in the shape of the eye, not absolute values, and the lens is worn for periods of a day under the guidance of an eye specialist.
This is the clearest case of a connected lens that reached practice, and it is also fairly specific: a single sensor, for a single purpose, with a professional in charge.
A lens with a light
In the late 2000s, a group at the University of Washington led by Babak Parviz described a lens with a tiny light-emitting element powered by a wireless coil. It was tested for safety on a rabbit. The lens could not show an image that the wearer could see, because the eye cannot focus on something so close to the cornea, but it demonstrated that circuits and light sources could be built on a lens. Such work was often reported in the press as a step toward display lenses and “augmented reality” in a lens.
Other groups proposed lenses with tiny arrays of light emitting diodes, projected displays and pairs of lenses working together. Practical difficulties remain large: the focusing problem, the power supply, the heat from electronics next to the eye, and the safety of a lens that must stay on for hours. Smaller, thinner displays have advanced in the VR headsets industry but not in a form that fits on the eye, and lens-based displays for consumers remain unproven.
Chemical sensing and other ideas
Several lenses have been proposed that measure chemical markers in tears, including glucose, which has been the focus of the largest projects. Other ideas include lenses that release drugs on a schedule, lenses that track blinking or eye movement, and lenses with adjustable focus for people who have trouble with near vision. Patents and publications exist for many of these, and some have been shown in the lab. Few have been tested in large trials, and fewer still have reached the market.
Which claims are unproven
Many news stories about smart contact lenses state or imply capabilities that have not been demonstrated. In particular:
- A patent filing is not a working product; companies file patents on ideas well before they build anything.
- A lens that works for hours on a rabbit or in a lab setup has not necessarily been proven safe or accurate for people.
- Claims that a lens can replace a phone, or that it can diagnose conditions on its own, go well beyond published evidence.
- Statements that a lens gives “perfect” or continuous measurements should be treated with caution, because accuracy depends on the sensor, the person and the conditions.
The wider context
Smart lenses are part of the broader trend toward wearable devices that began with the smartwatch design and extended to sensors worn on the skin or in clothing. The attraction of the eye is that it is accessible and near the brain. The difficulty is the same reason: it is delicate, and anything placed there must be comfortable, transparent and safe. Combining these needs with electronics, and making a product that can be produced at scale, has taken longer than early announcements suggested. Wireless sensor lenses also belong in the family of connected sensors that collect data from the body, which brings questions of privacy as well as engineering.
A measured summary
The first lens with built-in electronics was probably a research prototype whose date and creator depend on the definition used. What can be said safely is that wireless power, tiny sensors and stretchable circuits on lenses have been demonstrated, that a pressure-sensing lens has reached clinical use, and that lenses with displays or reliable chemical monitoring are still unproven.