Some things just seem to naturally go together – peanut butter and chocolate is one of those combinations – especially in the form of peanut butter cups. Bacon and eggs is another, as is peanut butter and jelly, pizza and beer and numerous other tasty combinations.
I started thinking about these great combinations after I read the recent news that Novartis and Google are working together to develop a “smart” contact lens that could help improve vision and help diabetics manage their disease.
The lens, which is being developed by Alcon’s eye care division and will license Google technology will use microchips and miniaturized electronics to do two things.
First, to aid vision, the lens will have the potential to help those with presbyopia, or difficulty focusing on object that are near to them, see better without glasses.
Second, the lens will be able to continuously monitor a diabetic’s blood glucose level by measuring tear fluid.
This strikes me as something that should be added to the list of all-time great combinations. As anyone who has head to check their blood glucose level several times a day knows, this is literally a big pain. An option to have this task done painlessly and automatically will no doubt aid diabetics more easily monitor their blood sugar and help them track their health.
The vision aid part of the combination is a bonus as well. As many of the younger baby-boomers are reaching that age when reading glasses are becoming a necessity, the thought of wearing “granny” glasses is not something to be embraced (I’m guilty of this) and indeed is being pushed off for as long as possible.
A win-win combination in my book. I truly hope Novartis and Google can figure this out and bring this to market. I think it would make a tasty combination. Almost as good as peanut butter and chocolate.
