What wearable technology could mean for your eyes
From smartwatches to fitness trackers, wearable devices help countless people track and improve their health every day. Now, wearable tech is starting to transform the way eye doctors monitor their patients' eye health and vision.
Eye problems are mostly monitored during follow-up eye exams. But with devices that you can now wear on or near your eyes, it may be possible to track some changes more continuously and over a longer period of time.
With an eye doctor's guidance, this technology can help protect your eyesight and make the most of your vision.
How wearables work to keep your eyes healthy
Wearable eye tech devices like smart glasses and smart contact lenses often use small measuring components (sensors) and a power supply to gather important information about your eyes and overall health.
What they measure
Sensors can be designed to measure and detect important information about your eyes. Depending on the device, this might include factors like eye movements, blinking patterns or the makeup of your tears.
How they get the data
Most doctor-prescribed devices regularly monitor your eyes and look for changes throughout the day. Some are only worn for a little while but others are used more often or for longer periods. The data collected is then transferred to a separate device or program so it can be processed and assessed by your doctor.
How this could help
An eye doctor can get more frequent updates on your eye health than with a typical in-person follow-up schedule. This helps them diagnose new problems, monitor existing ones and adjust treatment plans earlier, often before you notice any changes in your vision or overall health.
Current and future wearable devices for eye health monitoring
Wearable tech is still evolving in the eye care field and the future is promising. The following devices are being used or developed to help people monitor and improve their eye health:
Eye-tracking wearables
Many wearable devices track your eye movements while you wear them. This is a common feature in smart glasses, consumer headsets and other pieces of wearable tech.
Eye-tracking devices are also used in medical practice to aid in the diagnosis and monitoring of some eye and health conditions. For example, if your eye doctor suspects you have an eye movement disorder like nystagmus, they may use an eye-tracking device for assessment.
Smart glasses and virtual reality (VR) headsets used to be considered "niche" products, but they're becoming more popular with everyday users. VR is used to create a completely virtual world inside the headset, but you can't see anything outside of it.
Augmented reality (AR) technology, however, superimposes digital objects in a way that makes them look like they're hovering in front of you.
Mixed-reality (MR) headsets like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest blend AR with VR. They track your eye movement and digitally place videos, app windows and other objects into a digital world that's projected to look exactly like your real-life surroundings.
Research is underway to use consumer products like these to screen your vision for different eye problems.
OcuLenz smart glasses
One device specific to eye health is OcuLenz, an AR-based glasses device designed to help people with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) get the most out of their vision.
AMD is a gradual disease that slowly damages a vital part of your retina called the macula. This small spot at the back of your eye is responsible for your central vision, so people with AMD can experience blurry vision and blind spots in that area. Peripheral (side) vision is not affected.
In real time, OcuLenz tracks eye movement and rearranges faces, text and other objects outside someone's blind spots. This creates a fuller view that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.
To do this, the device needs to know the size, shape and location of the user's blind spots. It consistently monitors these spots and can alert the person’s eye doctor if they begin to get bigger.
AMD can't be cured, but it can often be slowed down. Near-constant monitoring with wearable tech could help doctors and patients start treatment sooner, without waiting until the next routine follow-up appointment.
While AMD is common, rarer conditions like Stargardt’s disease and Best disease can also cause central vision loss. OcuLenz and similar wearables could have just as big an impact for people with these conditions, too.
Smart contact lenses
Smart contact lenses rely on tiny sensors to record measurements, track eye movements and perform other tasks. They usually connect with another device or program in some way.
In eye health, these lenses could someday be used widely to help eye doctors diagnose, monitor, make treatment assessments and even deliver medications for eye problems.
Sensimed Triggerfish
Some doctors have already used specialized contacts to measure eye changes related to glaucoma. This is a group of eye diseases that damages the optic nerve — the light signal pathway between your eyes and brain. It can cause peripheral vision loss or blindness if it isn't treated.
Many people with glaucoma also have high pressure inside the eye (high intraocular pressure or IOP). While high IOP doesn’t cause the condition, treatment that lowers eye pressure is one of the best ways to slow and prevent future vision loss due to glaucoma. However, treatment cannot reverse any damage that has already been done.
Eye pressure can go up and down throughout the day, so Sensimed Triggerfish — a smart contact lens — takes IOP measurements over 24 hours. While the smart lens can't replace the accuracy of in-office measurements, the continuous stream of data can give eye doctors a better picture of someone's pressure levels throughout the day.
The future of smart contacts
Researchers are exploring even more possibilities for smart contact lenses in the future. In addition to monitoring eye pressure, they could also deliver medicine directly to the eye as needed. This could potentially help keep someone's IOP at a healthy level around the clock.
One day, smart contacts may also be able to help people with diabetes, high cholesterol and other conditions.
High levels of blood glucose (blood sugar) can lead to several diabetes-related eye problems. One of them — diabetic retinopathy — can lead to vision loss, especially if blood sugar levels aren't controlled well.
Verily (part of Google's parent company) worked with pharmaceutical company Novartis for several years to develop a contact lens that could monitor someone's glucose levels through their tears.
While that particular project ended without success, researchers are still looking for ways to monitor glucose levels through wearable smart contact lenses.
Clip-on activity monitors
Myopia (nearsightedness) is more common now than ever before. While myopia can usually be corrected with prescription glasses or contacts, high myopia (a more severe degree of nearsightedness) can put people at risk for serious eye problems later in life.
The best time to control myopia is during childhood. Lifestyle changes and treatment (if needed) may help slow myopia progression so that it's less severe when vision stabilizes sometime between ages 20 and 30.
Clouclip clip-on monitor
Wearable tech like the Clouclip Glasses Clip can be used to monitor kids' vision habits and protect their eyesight.
The device clips onto any pair of glasses and monitors activities that may influence a child's risk for developing nearsightedness, such as:
- How far away a child holds reading material from the eyes
- How much time a child spends reading
- The angle at which they view reading material
- How bright their surroundings are when reading
- How much time they spend outside
Eye doctors and parents can use this data to estimate a child's myopia risk and what can be done to lower it.
Vivior Monitor clip-on device
Like Clouclip, Vivior Monitor is a device that clips on to eyeglass frames to monitor myopia-related vision habits.
It's also being used for adults before cataract surgery. In particular, the device uses measurements and artificial intelligence to help cataract surgeons determine which intraocular lens (IOL) is the best fit for their patient. An IOL is a clear artificial lens that replaces the cloudy natural lens (a cataract).
Certain types of lenses, like multifocal IOLs, are designed to help people with presbyopia see up close without reading glasses.
READ MORE: How AI is revolutionizing the future of eye care
Who could wearable eye health tech help?
While various devices are already available for some eye conditions, researchers are exploring new ways to help people every day.
Current wearable devices and areas of research include these and other eye-related conditions:
- Glaucoma
- Myopia and other refractive errors
- Cataracts
- Diabetic retinopathy
- Retinal conditions like macular degeneration
- Dry eye
- Strabismus
- Keratoconus
- Dyslexia
- Metamorphopsia
- Color blindness
- Visual impairment and vision loss
Some wearable eye tech is or may be used to monitor other health problems that can cause eye changes, such as:
- Stress
- Diabetes
- High cholesterol
- Liver, kidney or other problems related to lactic acid levels
- Myasthenia gravis
- Parkinson's disease
When to get help for eye health issues
While wearable eye health devices may be valuable tools now and in the future, they are not substitutes for an in-person eye exam with an optometrist or ophthalmologist. In many cases, they're designed to provide additional data to your eye doctor so they can better understand your condition.
Schedule an eye exam if you experience:
- Blurry vision or other changes in your eyesight
- Trouble seeing at night
- Redness, discharge or other eye changes
- Eye pain
- An eye injury
If your eye doctor thinks a wearable device could help monitor or improve an eye problem you're experiencing, they will talk to you about it during your eye exam. They can also refer you to a specialist if they need to.
