One of the biggest hurdles with smart contact lenses has always been power because it is difficult, and most of the time impractical, to put a battery in your eye. The deep-tech company XPANCEO is trying a different way. The company recently unveiled a new eye-tracking system that doesn’t need any internal electronics or power sources to work.

Instead of sensors, they use tiny microscopic patterns embedded in the lens. These patterns act like optical markers. For example, our laptop camera or phone can see them and know exactly where you are looking. As your eye moves, two thin layers in the lens shift against each other, creating a visual pattern that a standard camera can read.

Smart Eye-Tracking

Most eye-trackers usually have to shine infrared light into your eye and then record the reflections. This uses a lot of energy and often struggles if you are outside in bright sunlight. XPANCEO’s version is “passive,” meaning it just sits there and lets the camera do the work.

“This moiré pattern approach provides accurate eye orientation measurement using optical geometry without adding complexity or energy requirements to the lens,” said Dr. Valentyn Volkov, Founder and CTO of XPANCEO. “The technology extends the potential applications of contact lens platforms, particularly in environments where users are already interfacing with camera-equipped devices.”

Smart Contact Lenses For Health Tracking

While using your eyes to scroll through a webpage is cool, is it really a top priority or “needed”? The company acknowledges that and sees a bigger future in health and safety. Because the lens is so precise, tracking movement within 0.3 degrees, it can pick up on tiny twitches the human eye might miss.

Doctors are already looking at these small eye movements as “biomarkers.” They could potentially help spot early signs of conditions like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s.