November 27, 2025

Yağmur Güven

Işıkkent High School

11th Grade

Smart contact lenses are a relatively new and advanced technology that is expected to offer many advantages in daily life and healthcare. These lenses are equipped with sensors, electronics, and optics inside a soft, biocompatible lens, offering capabilities far beyond vision correction in a miniaturized system. Although the original purpose of its design was to develop vision applications, today this new technological inventory has expanded considerably. With the combination of microelectronics, materials science, and biotechnology, smart contact lenses offer a revolution in areas such as augmented reality, monitoring health metrics, and communication. Indeed, its potential also extends beyond these fields, demonstrating unprecedented possibilities in biosensing capabilities and drug delivery systems.

Smart contact lenses, often referred to as next-generation lenses, can provide personalized healthcare services to users with the help of biosensing capabilities. These lenses are designed to analyze physiological feedback and subsequently provide personalized recommendations regarding appropriate drug dosage. Furthermore, they are capable of alerting the user when any abnormal health indicators are detected. Through the continuous monitoring of values such as glucose levels, intraocular pressure, and biomarkers, users can obtain fast and reliable information about their health status. This offers a significant advantage to users by allowing them to take preventive measures against potential diseases and enhance their personal health awareness.

Vision impairments, which are the main target of smart contact lenses, are no longer an issue through sustainable material choices such as silicone hydrogel composites and water gradients. It is also planned to make a difference with augmented reality, navigation assistance, and wireless connectivity to various smart devices.

Even though the origins of smart contact lenses do not extend far into the past, the development of lenses goes back a long way. In fact, the theoretical background of contact lenses can be traced back to Leonardo da Vinci’s sketches from 1508. The drawings illustrate an alternative approach to vision, rather than vision through direct contact with the eye. Since the sketches date back several centuries, their practical application required considerable time to materialize. The first contact lenses were developed in 1887 by F.A. Muller and later improved by Adolf Fick and Edouard Kalt with therapeutic glass lenses. However, these lenses were uncomfortable and heavy. The significant developments that shaped the modern form of contact lenses occurred during the 20th century. In 1948, Kevin Tuohy introduced a new type of contact lens that provided significantly greater comfort compared to earlier designs. In the 1960s, Otto Wichterle and Drahoslav Lim invented soft hydrogel lenses, which became commercially widespread in the 1970s. Advanced technologies such as silicone hydrogel lenses were developed in the 1990s.

Today, with the rapid advancement of science and technology, smart contact lenses are anticipated to introduce innovations across multiple fields, generating significant interest and promising further transformative developments soon.