Google has filed patent for an electronic device that can be directly injected into the eyeballs and replace the lens. The patent was filed in 2014 and published last week.
The device is designed to help the focusing of light onto the retina, resulting in the correction of poor vision. It will contain its own storage, radio and lens. The device would be powered wirelessly through an energy-harvesting antenna. The antenna would allow it to connect to another device outside of the eye that would help it process information. The intra-ocular device is mostly intended to improve vision but it could also act as permanent set of contact lenses or a possible alternative to surgery.
Google patent application titled ‘Intra-ocular device’ reads,
Injecting a fluid into a lens capsule of an eye, wherein a natural lens of the eye has been removed from the lens capsule; positioning an intra-ocular device within the fluid in the lens capsule, wherein the intra-ocular device comprises an electronic lens, wherein the electronic lens can be controlled to provide an optical power within a range of optical powers, and wherein the optical power of the electronic lens is controlled in part by an electrical signal applied to the electronic lens; and solidifying the fluid in the lens capsule to form a coupling between the lens capsule and the intra-ocular device, such that accommodation forces can be applied to the intra-ocular device via the lens capsule and coupling.
This is not the first time Google is In 2014, Google was awarded a patent for a smart contact lens that will run on solar power and can perform functions like measuring glucose levels. Earlier this month, Samsung filed a patent for smart contact lens built-in camera.