Google Ask A Patents 'SmartWatch' for Blood Tests

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Google has filed a patent for 'smartwatch' which can take a small sample of blood without using a needle. This can help people with diabetes to more easily monitor their blood glucose levels throughout the day.

Currently, diabetics need to do step is fairly complicated for several times a day to ensure their insulin levels remain under control.

However, based on the limited information that is known so far, as quoted by Science Alert, Sunday (13/12/2015), Google's new device that looks like a 'smartwatch' is ready to handle the steps earlier in a more simple and practical.

Given that this discovery is under patent filing, Google was reluctant to talk more about the details of how the device works, to whatever device it is used, even when the device will be made. Nevertheless, Google has revealed little information.

The patent application reveals that the device first sends 'sudden surge' of gas into the barrel containing microparticles, which then puncture the skin to produce a drop of blood. This droplet is then sucked into the barrel of a negative pressure, which can be used for further testing.

"The application of such technology can be used to pick up small amounts of blood, for example, for testing glucose," Google wrote in its application.

From the diagram released by the patent, it looks like this device is a small tube that is stored on a device similar to a watch, which is then removed and used when the patient's blood needs to be taken.

Although diabetics are not specifically mentioned in the patent, we do not need a view of technology experts to conclude what the intended target market. And this is also not the first time Google has targeted people with diabetes actively with the invention.

Last year, a group of researchers at Google Life Science, the newly renamed Verily, announced that they are developing a contact lens 'smart' that will be able to monitor blood glucose levels, and other groups at Google working on glucose monitor sized bandages ready.

This is a business move made sense for Google because one in three adults in the United States is projected to have diabetes by 2050 if current trends continue, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC).

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