Your contact lenses would one day help you manage diabetes, say researchers. The team from The University of Western Ontario has developed new kind of lenses that would continuously alert diabetics to variations in their glucose levels by changing colours.

The new non-invasive technology will be able to replace the need to routinely draw blood throughout the day.

Developed by Chemical and Biochemical Engineering professor Jin Zhang, the new technique uses extremely small nanoparticles embedded into the hydrogel lenses, reports firstscience.com

These engineered nanoparticles react with glucose molecules found in tears, causing a chemical reaction that changes their colour.

Zhang is conducting further research to develop technologies using multifunctional nanocomposites. These technologies have vast potential applications beyond biomedical devices, including for food packaging.

For example, nanocomposite films can prevent food spoilage by preventing oxygen, carbon dioxide and moisture from reaching fresh meats and other foods, or by measuring pathogenic contamination; others can make packaging increasingly biodegradable.