- The ultra-thin battery is approximately 0.2mm thick, thin enough to fit a 0.5mm contact lens.
- The battery runs on a biocompatible salt solution and serves as an alternative to highly flammable lithium-ion batteries.
- Although the battery can be charged through a traditional wire or chemical method, it uses glucose in your tears to power it.
Scientist Lee Seok-woo said a scene from the movie “Mission: Impossible”
inspired his latest invention: smart contact lens batteries.
In the fourth film in the series, the agent wears contact lenses with facial recognition and eye.
tracking capabilities. Lee wanted to make that lens a reality.
“How can I work in this industry with smart contact lenses?” “I was wondering,” the associate.
professor at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.
told WEBWZ “The Edge.”
Lee’s expertise in battery components has been instrumental in his progress in
wearable technology. He realized that smart contact lenses needed safe, built-in
batteries, which would be crucial to the development of these devices.
Contact lenses are extremely thin at 0.5mm thick, so the size and flexibility of
these batteries is key to avoiding user discomfort.
“Our battery is about 0.2 mm thick, which is twice the thickness of a human hair,” Lee said.
Explains how smart contact lenses fit into a model of the human eye.
Lee and his team have developed a battery that can be powered using a
biocompatible salt solution as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries that contain
flammable materials.
This new battery can be charged by traditional wire or chemical method. When the battery is coated with glucose and immersed in a salt solution, the glucose reacts with sodium and chloride ions to charge it.
Scientists at NTU in Singapore have demonstrated how to charge a battery.
inside a smart contact lens using a traditional wired system.
After eight hours of chemical charging, the battery reaches 80% of its full capacity. Then it can be used for two hours during the day.
However, there is another unusual way to operate the battery.
“The tear solution contains glucose,” he told me. “This means that while wearing contact lenses, your tears can also charge the battery.
“If you cry a lot, it can overcharge your battery.”
A scientist shows off a smart contact lens equipped with a working prototype of a small battery.
Currently, the battery capacity and voltage are still limited. Using both methods, the battery can produce a voltage of approximately 0.3V to 0.6V. The standard voltage for an AA battery is 1.5 volts.
At this point, this output is not enough to power data storage or internet connectivity, but the team is working on developing battery specifications.
One potential partner Lee can identify is the health care.
We use glucose as biofuel,” he told me. “Many diabetics check their glucose levels every day.
We investigated how to detect glucose levels while the user is wearing contact lenses.
Although such innovation is possible, Lee believes the costs should be low given the potential of the batteries.
Once it is more seriously marketed, the cost of the battery should be a few dollars.
