Google Stole Its Smart Contact Lens From Microsoft. And That's a Good Thing

Google's latest bombshell of a research project is a smart contact lens diabetics can use to read blood sugar levels through the tears in their eyes. Thanks to a tiny microchip, Google says, the lens can provide a new glucose reading as often as once a second. Some have pointed out that the project follows in the footsteps of rival Microsoft, but this is merely another reason to applaud Google, a company with a knack for bringing research into the real world that we'll likely never see from Microsoft. The lens Google unveiled on Thursday seems to draw heavily, if not directly, from work done by Microsoft. As TechCrunch notes, one of the Googlers behind the project, Babak Parvis, once collaborated with the Redmond software giant on a lens the company fashioned for tracking blood sugar without needles.