Founded in 2021, XPANCEO has emerged as a pioneer in reimagining how we interact with technology. Unlike corporations developing the following generation of smartphones or laptops, XPANCEO is taking a fundamentally different approach: computing that sits directly in your eye. At Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025, the deep tech company unveiled multiple prototypes that exhibit their vision of invisible, weightless computing through smart contact lenses.
The core concept behind XPANCEO’s technology is each easy and revolutionary: replace traditional silicon-based devices with computing that feels as natural as your individual vision. By integrating advanced technology into contact lenses, XPANCEO goals to create a seamless mix between digital information and the physical world—what they call an “eXtended Reality experience.” Their philosophy, “the most effective device is not any device,” reflects their commitment to creating technology that disappears into the background while enhancing human capabilities.
These smart contact lenses should not just theoretical concepts or early laboratory experiments. At MWC 2025, XPANCEO demonstrated working prototypes with capabilities starting from health monitoring to augmented reality (AR), suggesting that their vision of invisible computing is approaching reality.
The Three Essential Prototypes
Smart Contact Lens with Wireless Powering Companion
One among the elemental challenges for any wearable device—particularly one as small as a contact lens—is power delivery. XPANCEO’s first prototype addresses this challenge with a wireless powering system that significantly advances current technology.
This lens features fully distant power transfer with twice the range of previous industry solutions, allowing users to power their lenses without direct contact. The powering companion is designed as a conveyable accessory that will be carried in a handbag or pocket, similar in size and form to an ordinary contact lens case.
Despite the advanced technology, the lens maintains a versatile, lightweight design. Safety stays essential—the radiation levels are comparable to common wearable devices, addressing potential concerns about having a powered device so near the attention.
Smart Contact Lens with Wireless Powering Companion (XPANCEO)
Biosensing Smart Contact Lens
The second prototype showcases the potential of smart lenses for health monitoring. Traditional biomarker measurements often require invasive procedures like blood draws, which will be inconvenient and uncomfortable. XPANCEO’s Biosensing Smart Contact Lens takes a distinct approach by measuring body parameters directly from tear fluid.
The lens features a sophisticated biosensor that works with nanoparticles to boost the signal of elements present in tear fluid. This technology enables high-sensitivity monitoring of key health indicators including:
- Glucose levels, essential for diabetes management
- Various hormones including cortisol, estradiol, estrone, progesterone, and testosterone
- Vitamins B1, B2, B3, E, and D
By constantly monitoring these biomarkers, the lens could transform personal health management. Relatively than periodic testing, users would have constant awareness of their body’s chemistry, potentially enabling earlier detection of health issues and more personalized wellness approaches.
Biosensing Smart Contact Lens (XPANCEO)
Smart Contact Lens with IOP Sensor
The third prototype addresses a particular but critical health concern: glaucoma management. Glaucoma, a number one reason behind blindness worldwide, is characterised by increased pressure contained in the eye (intraocular pressure or IOP). Early detection and continuous monitoring are essential for stopping vision loss.
XPANCEO’s IOP Sensor lens provides non-invasive, continuous monitoring of eye pressure. At MWC, the corporate demonstrated this technology alongside a custom eye model that replicates the human eye. The lens accommodates a virtually invisible optical pattern that shifts in response to changes in intraocular pressure.
When users scan this pattern with an AI-powered smartphone app, they receive real-time, precise measurements of their IOP. This technique could dramatically improve early glaucoma detection and ongoing management, potentially stopping irreversible vision loss through timely intervention.
Smart Contact Lens with IOP Sensor (XPANCEO)
Additional Innovations
Beyond the three major prototypes, XPANCEO also showcased two additional smart contact lens technologies that expand their vision of invisible computing.
Improved AR Vision Lens with Integrated Microdisplay
XPANCEO demonstrated an enhanced version of their AR Vision lens featuring an integrated microdisplay. Unlike typical augmented reality systems that require bulky headsets, this technology is embedded directly right into a contact lens. The microdisplay can project digital information directly onto the retina, making a mix of digital and physical worlds.
What makes this particularly impressive is the scale constraint—creating display technology sufficiently small to slot in a contact lens while maintaining visual clarity represents a major advancement. The AR Vision lens points toward applications starting from navigation and real-time information display to completely recent types of digital interaction.
Data Reading Lens with Wireless Transmission
The fifth prototype unveiled at MWC was a Smart Contact Lens for Data Reading, equipped with an integrated wireless data transmission antenna and mass-production-ready flexible electronics. This lens enables real-time transfer of data from the contact lens to a companion device.
The companion device serves a dual purpose—functioning as each a charger and a computational hub. This architecture allows the lens to stay small and cozy while offloading intensive processing tasks to the companion device. Users can receive biometric information collected by the lens directly on their smartphones, making the info immediately accessible and useful.
Technical Achievements
XPANCEO’s prototypes are several breakthrough technologies which are working to beat longstanding challenges in wearable computing.
Amongst essentially the most significant achievements demonstrated at MWC 2025 were:
- Sub-0.5mm projectors: These ultra-miniaturized display components enable visual information to be projected while maintaining the skinny profile crucial for a cushty contact lens.
- World’s thinnest flexible 2D conductors: These allow electronic components to bend with the lens, essential for each comfort and sturdiness.
- High-sensitivity compact IOP sensors: These can detect minute changes in eye pressure while remaining sufficiently small for integration right into a contact lens.
- Nanoparticle-enhanced biosensors: This technology amplifies the signal from biomarkers in tear fluid, allowing detection at very low concentrations.
These technologies can offer solutions to multiple challenges: miniaturization, flexibility, power efficiency, and signal detection. Lots of these capabilities were previously thought unimaginable at the size of a contact lens.
The connection between the contact lenses and their companion devices is a critical design alternative. Relatively than attempting to pack all computing power into the lens itself—which might create power and warmth issues—XPANCEO has developed a distributed computing model.
The companion devices handle power delivery, data processing, and connectivity with other systems. This approach keeps the lenses thin and cozy while still enabling sophisticated functionality. The companion devices are designed to be unobtrusive, similar in size to a contact lens case that will be carried in a pocket or purse.
Reshaping Human-Computer Interaction
Probably the most profound implication of those lenses is the potential shift in how we interact with computing. XPANCEO’s statement that “the most effective device is not any device” suggests a future where technology recedes from conscious awareness while becoming more intimately connected to our bodies and senses.
This approach could eliminate most of the barriers and frictions in current human-computer interaction. As an alternative of typing, swiping, or speaking, interaction might occur through more natural means like gaze direction. As an alternative of pulling out a tool to access information, that information could be available inside our visual field at any time when needed.
This can be a significant evolution from the smartphone era. While smartphones made computing portable, they still require deliberate attention and physical interaction. Contact lens computing would create a world where the interface between humans and digital information becomes nearly imperceptible, creating truly ubiquitous and frictionless access to the digital world.
