Smart Contact Lenses Could Track Your Health

May 28, 2026

Closeup of a finger holding a high-tech contact lens

Contact lenses have been helping people see more clearly for over a century, but recent advances are expanding their potential. “There are many new materials, sustainability efforts and ‘smart’ innovations emerging today,” says Thomas Stokkermans, OD, PhD, an optometrist, Director of Optometric Services and Co-Director of the Dry Eye Center of Excellence at University Hospitals.

Materials

New materials are changing how contact lenses feel and function, helping them stay comfortable and hold moisture for longer. Some can even deliver medication. Examples of newer materials include:

Biomimetic Materials: “These materials have surfaces that mimic the eye's natural tear film and cell membranes,” says Dr. Stokkermans. “They keep lenses moist and make them more comfortable.”
Self-Lubricating/Moisture-Retention Materials: New generation silicone hydrogel lenses are now being made with advanced wetting agents that maintain moisture for longer stretches of time, he says. “They help with dry eyes.”
Enhanced Silicone Hydrogel (SiHy): These modern SiHy materials allow significantly more oxygen to reach the cornea, reducing the risk of oxygen deprivation, says Dr. Stokkermans. “They are more breathable than ever.”
Water Gradient Technology: This lens design approach creates a “cushion” of moisture between your eye and eyelid and the contact lens. “It combines the high breathability of a silicone hydrogel core with the extreme comfort and moisture of a traditional hydrogel surface.”

Sustainability

With more people relying on contact lenses every day, the environmental impact of disposable materials, packaging and manufacturing is growing. “Contact lens companies are starting to think seriously about sustainability issues and how to make their products more environmentally friendly,” says Dr. Stokkermans.

Contact lenses are becoming more more sustainable in a variety of ways:

Using thinner plastic contact lens packaging.
Making foil-only contact lens packaging.
Using more recycled materials.
Reducing the amount of water used during the manufacturing process.
Shifting to renewable energy to help power manufacturing operations.
Expanding recycling programs for contact lenses and their packaging.

Smart Contact Lenses

Some of the latest high-tech contact lenses are being designed to do more than just correct vision. Tiny sensors can be built into “smart” lenses to track changes in your eye and the environment around you. They’re also capable of collecting and wirelessly transmitting data that can be used to monitor and analyze your eye health. Most smart contact lenses are still in development, but early versions look promising, including some that the FDA has approved.

The Sensimed Triggerfish is an FDA-approved smart contact lens that monitors changes in the eye, including fluctuations in pressure. “As of now, we have only this one smart contact lens that’s available to track eye pressure,” says Dr. Stokkermans. “It’s almost like a Holter monitor – you wear the contact lens and it measures the pressure in your eyes over time.”

Additional smart technologies in development:

Noninvasive health monitoring: Some smart contact lenses are being designed to monitor health in noninvasive ways by collecting data directly from the eye. If these technologies prove effective, they could potentially measure glucose levels in tears or eye temperature to help manage conditions like diabetes or dry eye.
Early detection of disease: In the future, smart contact lenses might be used to spot early signs of conditions like eye diseases, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and some cancers.
Delivering treatments: It may soon be possible for smart contact lenses to help monitor and manage certain conditions. Researchers are developing materials that can hold and gradually release eye medications onto the eye’s surface to help treat conditions like glaucoma or allergies. “These would also potentially reduce the need for daily drops,” says Dr. Stokkermans.
Others are studying whether smart lens technology could have a positive effect on brain activity linked to conditions like depression. Early animal studies suggest that electrical stimulation sent through the eye may influence mood-related brain activity, though more research is needed to know if this could be effective in humans.
Tracking eye movement: Lenses that follow how the eyes move could be used to help athletes perform better and support treatments like vision therapy.
Augmenting vision: Researchers are working on contact lenses that can adapt to your vision needs. Some may automatically adjust focus for near, middle and distance vision, while others may filter light to cut glare and improve visibility in bright, low-light or nighttime conditions.
Assistive technologies: It may also be possible to someday add features like text-to-speech, text magnification and object recognition to help support people with complex visual impairment or disabilities.

There are also some augmented reality technologies in the works for smart contact lenses that sound like they’ve come straight out of a science-fiction book, including the ability to use eye movements to control devices like your smartphone or to take photos.

“It’s not yet available, but there is technology that can project images from a contact lens into the eye, so that you can basically look around you and have labels or navigation overlaying what you’re seeing in the real world,” says Dr. Stokkermans. “I would love that technology with facial recognition so when my patients come in, I’d automatically know everybody's name and chart details.”