WEBVTT - Making Contact (Lenses) With the future 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.160 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:14.720 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:18.560 podcast that looks at the future and says, when I'm doubtful, 0:00:18.720 --> 0:00:22.240 I tend to believe my own eyes. I'm Jonathan Strickland, 0:00:22.280 --> 0:00:26.240 I'm Joe McCormick. And today the eyes have it because 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.160 we are going to be talking about your eyeballs, one 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.920 of our favorite things. Yes, two of them in some cases, 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.599 but we're gonna be talking about delicious. Yes, you know 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:42.120 that everybody. Everybody has a favorite stack, right. Uh. So 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.280 we're actually gonna be talking about contact lenses specifically here 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.000 because there's been a little bit of information in the 0:00:49.040 --> 0:00:52.479 news about some high tech contact lenses. We kind of 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.680 wanted to explore that and talk about some of the 0:00:55.760 --> 0:01:00.880 different approaches to contact lenses of the future. And um, 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.840 we've got a couple of different, uh perspectives on this. 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:06.800 I guess that's sort of a pun, one of them 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:11.080 being under Google's version and then some other versions as well. 0:01:11.880 --> 0:01:14.760 And uh, it ties into some other things that we've 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.400 talked about in past episodes. Oh yeah, we talked all 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:20.640 the time on the show about wearable health monitors. And 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:25.920 also about augmented reality and contact lenses could potentially provide 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.280 new new intros into both of those. Yeah, so it's 0:01:30.280 --> 0:01:34.840 really uh, I mean potentially it could be incredible technology 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:39.000 for large populations. Yeah. I mean if you thought people 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.520 were obsessed with their phones, wait till they don't even 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:47.120 have to hold it in their hands. You say that, 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:51.280 but I remember everyone giving me funny looks when I 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.680 was sporting the Google Glass. But that's because you were 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.080 sporting the Google Glass. It was a big thing that 0:01:57.120 --> 0:02:02.080 people could see your face. I was rocking the Google glass. Okay, okay, 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:05.320 you were. You were rocking it extremely hard and you 0:02:05.400 --> 0:02:08.600 look so cool. Everybody was like, who is that? Man? 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:12.480 Makes me said that I had to give those back. Uh. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:16.040 So let's talk about Google's approach to contact lenses, because 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.480 it is different from their approach to Google Glass. Well. Yeah, 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:22.480 and one of the big differences that is that Google Glass. 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:27.280 You might say it was essentially an augmented reality. Uh, 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.040 I don't know. Would you say augmented really? Yeah, I'd 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.519 say I'd say it was a very early implementation of 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.839 some augmented reality is really more like a second screen. Yeah, 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:39.600 put a screen in my eyeball. Yeah, but here my 0:02:39.680 --> 0:02:42.079 eyeball is the case. Maybe, but I think you could 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:44.360 see what they were going for. It was it was 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.880 trending toward augmented reality, yes, definitely. So the principle of 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:51.519 augmented reality is different than virtual reality. Just for those 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:53.720 of you who don't know, augmented reality is that you're 0:02:53.800 --> 0:02:57.480 basically perceiving reality as it is, but with some things 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:00.720 added or modified, some sort of over lay on top 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:03.959 of it. Now, with Google's contact lenses, at least in 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.480 the the short term, the near term, they don't have 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.680 anything to do with augmented reality at all. Uh. Instead, 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:12.920 it just happens to be a thing that goes on 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.480 your eyeballs, yes, yeah, and it happens to be provided 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:19.119 by Google. So, but this was something that was publicly 0:03:19.160 --> 0:03:22.320 announced on January six, two thousand and fourteen. There had 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:26.240 been some rumors that Google was working on something that 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:29.720 had to do with contact lenses before this announcement, but 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.519 it was made public on their blog. Google employees Brian 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:38.880 Otis and Babak Parvis jointly published a blog post. They 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.520 were the or still are I assume the co project 0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:48.640 leaders on this, uh, and they worked in Google's X division. Now, 0:03:48.920 --> 0:03:52.680 the Google X division is no longer a division within Google. 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:56.280 It's actually they're not, well, no, there's still they're still 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.760 associated with Google. It's just that now you have a 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:04.680 new parent company called Alphabet. Google is one of the subsidiaries. 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.840 Under Alphabet, Google X is a second subsidiary. The idea 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.240 being that now Google X can continue to do research 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:15.840 and development but not have to answer to the other 0:04:15.920 --> 0:04:18.480 company of Google in order to do so. Like if 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.960 if Big Google does poorly, it doesn't affect Google X. 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:26.080 In other words, so, but so if they're working on 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:31.680 futuristic contact lenses and they're not expressly or primarily for 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.839 augmented reality, you know, not for making people's tender profiles 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:39.440 pop up when you look at their faces, what exactly 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.880 are they for? Something that's really cool? And it goes 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:45.159 back to what Lauren was saying with the sort of 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:47.640 the health monitoring systems that we've been looking at in 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:49.840 the past, in fact has a lot to do with that. 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:56.280 The contact lenses incorporate sensors and circuitry and microprocessors in 0:04:56.400 --> 0:05:00.520 order to monitor something about either the person who's wearing 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.240 it or the environment that person is in, and then 0:05:03.760 --> 0:05:07.279 send that information to an actual device that would do 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:11.720 the processing part, like the real data crunching part, that 0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.600 would then display information either to that person or to 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.640 someone else that uh like an expert, like for example, 0:05:19.680 --> 0:05:22.520 with health it might be to that person's doctor. Uh. 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.720 The idea being that it could create a very early 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.040 warning system in a lot of cases, um and really 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:35.800 monitor at a uh precise level a person's health from 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.680 moment to moment, give real time updates. It's a really 0:05:38.720 --> 0:05:44.880 cool idea. UM. Now, the main purpose they talked about 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.760 in that blog post was to help people who suffer 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:52.760 from diabetes, because obviously, diabetes it's a it's a huge problem, 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:57.080 particularly here in the United States, and it's a problem 0:05:57.120 --> 0:06:00.560 that can lead to very serious health complicate ations down 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.080 the line if you aren't treating it properly. Sure, and 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:05.760 it can, especially in people with type one diabetes, lead 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:10.000 to extremely serious consequences moment to moment when their blood 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.839 sugar spikes or drops exactly right, So you want to 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:16.320 be able to monitor your glucose levels, and and normally 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:18.279 the way you would do that is you'd have to 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.440 take a blood sample and it's pretty obtrusive. Yeah, all right, 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:24.000 And they said, you know this, this is it's something 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:29.080 that plagues people who suffer from diabetes. It can become 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:33.400 a disincentive to keep up with your glucose levels, which 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.599 could lead to disastrous results. So what they wanted to 0:06:36.640 --> 0:06:40.480 do was develop a sensor that could detect glucose levels 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:43.919 in your tears as opposed to your blood stream. Sure 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.520 and uh, and that's not just when people with diabetes 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.160 are like listening to a lot of Morrissey, you always 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:52.680 have tears in your eyes. They're called basal tears. It's 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:56.000 and and those are a substance that that have glucose 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.560 and a representative amount of your blood glucose level in 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:01.080 them at all times. Right. And one of the criticisms 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:04.080 that I've heard directed at this approach is that the 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:06.760 level of glucost present in your tears is different from 0:07:06.760 --> 0:07:09.880 that that is present in your blood. So there's some 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:14.040 some people who question how accurate this contact lens can be, Like, 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:16.960 how how much does your glucose level have to change? 0:07:17.440 --> 0:07:19.760 How dramatic must have changed me before the sensor picks 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.760 it up. That's obviously something that will be worked out 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.040 if and when this moves on to a testing phase. 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:27.600 With the f d A and we'll talk about that 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.440 in a second as well. But beyond UH checking your 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.480 glucost levels, it can do other things, um, but I'll 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.200 talk about that in a seconds. Google, in order to 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:40.360 do this as partnered with another company called Novartis UH, 0:07:40.400 --> 0:07:44.720 and they gave a very conservative prediction that the contact 0:07:44.800 --> 0:07:48.800 lenses would be available sometime around the year two thousand nineteen. 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:51.160 Now you say that's conservative, what why do you think 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.160 it might be sooner than that. I think I think 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:57.440 the technology will be ready before that. And that's based 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:00.840 upon just the fact that not too long ago Google 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:04.960 had an internal UH document talking about what would be 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:08.480 interesting ways to package these contact lenses. If you're thinking 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:10.560 about packaging, you're probably getting to a point where the 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.440 technology itself is pretty close to being ready. Yeah, But 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:16.920 then again, you could think about that era of Hollywood 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:18.920 where they had a poster before they had a script 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:21.400 for a movie. You know what, you are entirely correct 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.440 that is that is absolutely a possibility. And whether the 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.200 technology is ready or not. As we've talked about on 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.240 the show before, it's really a quite laborious process getting 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:35.439 something approved for medical use in a human population, and 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:38.840 and we are thankful for that laborious process. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, no, 0:08:38.960 --> 0:08:43.080 yaya laborious because it means that you are more likely 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:46.760 to have something that has real efficacy as opposed to 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:50.040 a placebo or something that you know is telling you, yes, 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:51.760 I'm going to alert you in the case of a 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:54.720 medical emergency, and if it doesn't work, then real people 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.360 suffer because of that. I wonder if it would be 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.480 easier for them to get it on the market faster 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.359 if they just they marketed it as an extremely crappy 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.559 augmented reality device that just happens to have a bug 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:10.720 that measures your glucose welly. And we've seen cases of 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:13.600 of where a drug that was intended for one use 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:17.360 ends up being finding incredible success marketed for another use. 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.959 But I I suspect that wouldn't happen. Although they could say, hey, 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:24.360 these are contact lenses that are like a thermometer. I 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:26.719 can tell you your body temperature and if you are 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:29.160 having a fever or if your body temperature drops. Because 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.160 that's something else they could do. They could incorporate a 0:09:31.200 --> 0:09:36.319 sensor that's a very basic thermometer. It's actually a circuitry 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.600 component that changes shape with the temperature. You know, it'll 0:09:39.600 --> 0:09:42.920 expand or contract depending on the temperature particular levels, basically 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:46.040 like like at a at a certain um at certain temperatures, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:49.120 that will basically phase change kind of. It's it's a 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:53.000 it's a resistor inside the inside the circuit. So when 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:57.360 the resistor expands, its resistance changes, and by measuring the 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.560 change in resistance you can determine what the butture is, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.040 which is really clever, so you could market it as 0:10:04.160 --> 0:10:06.920 this is a very interesting thermometer that you wear on 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:09.560 your eye. Also, they'll tell you if it'll tell you 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.079 if your glucoast level drops. Uh, but I mean you 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.559 get it. All depends on what kind of sensors are incorporated. 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:17.760 They don't go so far as to say all of 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:19.600 this is going to be in a single pair of 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.320 contact lenses. It may very well be that these are 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.240 specific types of contact lenses, some of which may never 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:29.080 come to market. Yeah. Now, this is a very impressive 0:10:29.120 --> 0:10:33.800 and daunting engineering project to get something as tiny as 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.839 a contact lens to do, to do something like this 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:39.880 and to stand alone right right because because you don't 0:10:39.920 --> 0:10:43.240 want to hook up a coax cable to your eyeball. Yeah, 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.319 you don't want to have to have a or or 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.360 a in a power extension cord going to your eyes 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:51.280 plug my eyes. Yeah, I actually kind of want that, 0:10:51.320 --> 0:10:53.800 but that might just be the cyberpunkin. Yeah, that's that's 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:56.120 more of a shadow run kind of thing, you know, 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.280 when we're rolling our dark elves who need to go 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.640 and what is hacking called that game? I forget anyway? So, uh, 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.400 at any rate, the the the way that this works, well, 0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:08.439 first people were guessing that was going to run off 0:11:08.800 --> 0:11:11.000 r f I D, that was gonna run off radio frequency. 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.439 Actually not not r F I D in general, but 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:15.719 radio frequencies in particular. You would put in an r 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:18.960 F I D antenna as part of the circuitry. Here's 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.720 the interesting thing about radio frequencies. You can actually harvest 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.440 electricity using an antenna, you know, to pick up radio waves. 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:30.640 This is abundantly clear. If you ever pick up a 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:35.080 very basic radio kit which tends to have a crystal 0:11:35.559 --> 0:11:38.480 and and some wire that acts as in antenna, and 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:41.920 then you hook up another into a speaker's or headphones. 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:44.880 You don't need a battery. You can actually put the 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:49.199 headphones on and here radio transmissions. Assuming that one your 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.840 antenna is long enough and to that you're close enough 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.880 to the transmission source. And uh, that's why. You know, 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.559 while you can harvest electricity in this way, it's not 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.440 the way we distribute electricity. It's not the way we 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:06.080 we Uh, you know, I have a power grid set 0:12:06.160 --> 0:12:09.160 up on this because it's incredibly inefficient. Like if you 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:14.160 wanted to broadcast electricity, you would have to have incredibly 0:12:14.200 --> 0:12:17.400 powerful radio broadcasts. You need to be close to that 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:20.440 broadcast source, and everyone would have to have these enormous 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:23.760 antennas to pick up radio waves. Yeah, and it would 0:12:23.760 --> 0:12:28.200 be decreasingly effective the more walls you were behind. Picturing 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.080 us needing to have a transmitter like in this podcast room, 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:35.240 just like well nine by nine podcast room. I mean, 0:12:35.280 --> 0:12:39.400 it's like filling up a drinking glass with a lawn sprinkler, right, 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.640 And it's it's it's not just that it's inefficient in 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.800 that matter, it's it's also that you're you're just losing 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.320 so much power, you know, you're it's you're not conserving 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.160 energy at all. It's it makes no sense to go 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:55.160 that way. But for something as small as a contact lens, 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:58.520 if your device that you're using to communicate back and 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:01.720 forth between the contact lens. UH is able to emit 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:06.000 radio frequencies. It could presumably be a method to power 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:08.480 this stuff, and in fact, that's what everyone thought it 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.800 was going to do back in the day. If you 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.160 go at least at the time of the recording of this, 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:15.840 if you go to the Wikipedia page for this, it's 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:19.720 still held Wikipedia believes. I say that as if Wikipedia 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.959 is a sentient entity. It's still Wikipedia. I fear you. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.800 It's still the way that the Wikipedia entry says, Uh, 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.160 the contact lenses will get power. However, according to a 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:37.000 patent that was filed back in July, that's not the case. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.520 The patent. One of the inventors cited in the pattern 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:44.640 was Bob Otis, the the co project leader UM and 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:49.640 they instead looked at using let me guess, radio isotope 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:56.480 thermoelectric generator. No, No, excellent guess, however, h onboard fusion reactor, 0:13:57.520 --> 0:14:00.440 a flux capacitor. No, it was none of the things. 0:14:01.000 --> 0:14:04.440 It was instead of light, just pure light. So the 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:08.479 idea of being that you would have a photo receptor 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:13.360 that could convert light into electricity, very like a solar 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:16.480 panel in your eyes sort of. Although it doesn't necessarily 0:14:16.480 --> 0:14:18.360 have to be light from the sun. It could be, 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.320 but it doesn't necessarily have to be and UH. The 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:25.440 idea being that the little photo receptor would not just 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.040 bring in light to generate power, but also would feed 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:32.520 that data to the microprocessor. And if the light coming 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.240 into your eyes is modulated so that it can hold 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.040 data like those smart light bulbs that we talked about 0:14:39.360 --> 0:14:42.520 a couple of months ago. Yeah, or like um, really, 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:44.640 if you think about it's like a very advanced version 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.720 of a Morse code lamp that by flashing the lamp 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.680 on and off, you're sending a coded signal. Just make 0:14:50.720 --> 0:14:52.920 that way faster. In the signals are just a series 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.640 of zeros and once so so fast that you cannot, 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:59.160 in fact tell the difference from your brain. Right, and 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:02.280 it might even be at a frequency that you can't see. Right. 0:15:02.360 --> 0:15:05.280 It could be infrared light, so you wouldn't even see 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:09.480 it in that case. UM. And in this way, your 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.800 your contact lenses will be able to communicate to another 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:17.040 UH system. So we mentioned the idea of using these 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.800 contact lenses to monitor your glucose levels. What would happen 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:23.760 is that your contact lenses would be getting data from 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:27.320 your tears about how much glucose is in your your 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:31.360 system and send that information to the microprocessor, which would 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:34.520 then send a command to some sort of emitter. It 0:15:34.560 --> 0:15:37.800 would either be something as small as a very tiny 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:40.760 LED light. In other words, your eyes will be shooting 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:44.200 light out of them, not necessarily like you can see. Again, 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.000 it could be infrared. What you're saying is that this 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.960 isn't going to turn everyone into cyclops. No, only a 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:54.040 few fortunate people. We'll get the kind where you can 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.480 see like red light coming out of their eyes. I mean, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.720 I can imagine that happening. Is that what the X 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.320 and Google X stands after all this time? X men, 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.800 it's the X factor. I'm not gonna say one way 0:16:05.840 --> 0:16:08.200 or the other. Um. All I can say is that 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.520 I know a guy who works for Google, and he 0:16:10.520 --> 0:16:13.200 gets real quiet when I ask him these questions. But 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:18.080 he also finds me intensely irritating. So the But the 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.880 the other way that it could work as as opposed 0:16:20.920 --> 0:16:24.040 to having an LED light, it could have a reflector 0:16:24.080 --> 0:16:27.320 inside the contact lenses, and this would be like holding 0:16:27.360 --> 0:16:32.120 up a mirror to signal someone by reflecting sunlight toward them. Again, 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:34.920 kind of like in Morse code, but much faster, another 0:16:35.000 --> 0:16:39.360 modulated lights source, so that you could send data back 0:16:39.400 --> 0:16:41.320 and forth. They even go so far as to say 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.840 that if you wanted to get really fancy with this, 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.720 you could have photo receptors that are capable of picking 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.400 up different colors of light, and each color of light 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.080 could represent a different data stream. Yeah, think about that, Like, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:57.000 you could end up having the ability to accept multiple 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.720 levels of information through your eyes. I mean, we do 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.800 that way, but I mean the contact lenses could. But 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:05.280 all of this would just be so that your contact 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:09.560 lenses could send that data back to another device. Because, 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.400 as we've already mentioned this, this particular implementation that's described 0:17:13.400 --> 0:17:17.840 in the patent doesn't have any kind of display built 0:17:17.880 --> 0:17:20.439 into the contact lens, so you wouldn't see, like, it 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:23.679 wouldn't come up with a warning in your vision saying, hey, 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:26.600 your glucose levels are too high or too low. Instead, 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.560 it would send that information to some other companion device, 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.400 which would then either alert you or a caregiver or whatever, 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:38.000 like basically like send a text yeah and be like hey, yeah, 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.800 Jonathan needs a cookie or whatever it may be. So, no, 0:17:42.040 --> 0:17:44.800 you don't have direct communication from the contact lens itself, 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:49.399 but it is monitoring your your activity or um not 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.720 so much your activity, but you're just whatever the sensor 0:17:51.800 --> 0:17:55.560 is designed to do, whether it's BOI, yeah, and what 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:57.520 are okay? So we talked about temperature, we talked about 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:00.199 glucose levels, what other things could it be looking for 0:18:01.800 --> 0:18:05.120 other other sort of chemicals that are in your body, 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:07.960 that are present in your tears. Technically, any sensor that 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.359 could detect those could be incorporated into these, uh these 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.879 contact lenses as long as they could be miniaturized to 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:17.960 that degree. So but beyond that we're talking we I 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.760 mentioned that these could also detect things that are in 0:18:20.800 --> 0:18:24.080 your environment, not just the stuff that's inside your body, 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.480 but the stuff you come in contact with. So you 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.640 could have sensors that pick up on things like hazardous 0:18:29.720 --> 0:18:32.840 materials that let's say that's a dangerous gas that you 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.440 would otherwise be unable to detect on your own, or 0:18:35.600 --> 0:18:39.240 about like warning there are bees in your eyes that 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:42.680 probably probably they're not going to go that far. I'm 0:18:42.720 --> 0:18:45.639 going to get. Now, allergens they do look for, but 0:18:46.240 --> 0:18:49.440 that's different than bees. When you're allergic to bees, it's 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.680 not it's not the well, we'll have a to pres Yeah, 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:55.560 it's not. It's not like you're all Nicolas caging and 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.119 and I'm aware of Yeah, no, it's but when I 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:01.040 wonder if like bed ender is a thing, well, I 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:05.240 mean if be dander's essentially pollen, so oh actually yeah, yeah. 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:07.000 In that case, it would be like, Joe, there's bees 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:08.919 in your eyes again. Well, I guess it would be 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:11.960 Siri telling you, right, we need to Not Siri, it 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:14.320 would be Google. Yeah, yeah, we need to have a 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.919 talk about your your your life and your choices and 0:19:17.240 --> 0:19:19.960 be like go take a zero tech. Yeah, this is 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.600 soundingly like a terrible Sandman comic to me right now. 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:27.400 And honestly, it's just bees in the eyes. Well they can. 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.760 They could have sensors for allergens. So let's say that 0:19:30.800 --> 0:19:33.080 you are really allergic to certain types of pollen. You 0:19:33.080 --> 0:19:36.080 could have sensors that are incorporated into your contact lenses 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.439 that could alert you if you were coming into an 0:19:38.480 --> 0:19:39.880 area that has a lot of it, which could tell 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:41.919 you to one either get away or maybe you need 0:19:41.960 --> 0:19:46.440 to pop an anti histamine so that you don't move out. Yeah. Yeah. 0:19:46.480 --> 0:19:49.040 In Atlanta would just say just don't even bother going outside. 0:19:49.080 --> 0:19:54.840 Just stay inside from the months of like March through July. Um, 0:19:55.000 --> 0:19:57.480 then it could. But again, other hazards of stuff like 0:19:57.560 --> 0:20:00.359 say carbon monoxide, you could have sensors that pick up 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:03.400 on that and alert you to that presence. Beyond that, 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:07.359 you could have lots of other stuff. You can have, 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:09.880 you know, the temperature, the heat sensor, letting you know 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:13.159 if someone is having like a fever spike or their 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:18.240 body temperature drops. Uh Suddenly, that's a really useful ability. 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:19.760 But there are some other ones that are a little 0:20:19.880 --> 0:20:27.080 less medical in nature and possibly more commercial and or troubling. 0:20:27.240 --> 0:20:29.639 Like Google has said that one of the things this 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.879 could do is be a way of um authenticating someone's 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:39.160 identity or ascertaining that identity. So maybe not just authentication, 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:42.280 but identifying a person. Uh so so sort of like 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:46.480 a sort of like a smart chip in a credit card. Yeah, 0:20:46.560 --> 0:20:49.720 but it's just in your eyeball, I guess. I assume 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.480 it would also be based on your body chemistry. That 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.520 would uh, you know, alert people that yes, this is 0:20:55.560 --> 0:20:58.600 in fact that person. It seems a little seems a 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:00.760 little or welly into me. Not on aste. I say 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:06.240 that blood alcohol content is zero point eight, must be Jonathan, Yeah, 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:09.560 that's me. I'm the one I drink so much I'm dead. 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:15.280 Actually if I well, oddly enough, I think I'm meant 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:18.400 to say point zero. You know, pointy was like insane. 0:21:18.640 --> 0:21:24.040 It's like point I'm on alcohol. Uh, I'm fun at parties. 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:28.600 So at any rate, the yeah, it's a little troubling. 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.840 But the patent doesn't go into great detail about how 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:32.840 it would actually do this. I don't know if any 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:34.679 of you guys out there have read patents. I know 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:37.560 that my my coworkers here have read through patents before. 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.480 Pattens are meant to give you an overview of how 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:45.080 a certain technology uh is supposed to work, and in return, 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.320 you get protection for your approach to that technology for 0:21:48.400 --> 0:21:51.159 a certain amount of time. But but the information is 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.119 publicly there are also can sort of practical and commercial 0:21:55.160 --> 0:21:58.240 concerns at play in the creation of patent. Yeah, it 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.640 behooves you to not say too much, because as soon 0:22:01.680 --> 0:22:03.840 as you say something, it can I mean like like, 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:06.600 for example, I think that the makers of w D 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:11.000 forty have never patented their their recipe basically because they 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:13.040 don't want anyone else to copy here. Right, So, if 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:16.040 you're able to keep your your trade secret secret, it 0:22:16.119 --> 0:22:18.040 might be better not to patent it. But even if 0:22:18.040 --> 0:22:21.040 you do patent it, there's nothing about. You can be 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:23.840 a little vague with your language, which sometimes means that 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:25.840 you're like, Okay, I see what it's supposed to do, 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.400 but I still don't see exactly how it does that thing. 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:32.159 Another example of that is this idea of pairing the 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:37.840 the contact lenses with other outside products. They specifically talked about. 0:22:38.320 --> 0:22:42.919 They use the term merchandise item. So I was just 0:22:42.960 --> 0:22:45.520