You can’t get blood from a stone, but Google is apparently planning to get it from a watch. On your arm. Without needles. Are we the only ones who think this could be the foundation for a really bad sci-fi movie about vampire robots?
Google recently applied for a patent for this device, but details, like how it gets the blood without a needle, are scarce at this point. The application refers to a burst of gas that enters a barrel and sends a micro particle into the user’s skin, producing a droplet of blood that is sucked into a negative pressure barrel whence the droplet can be used to, say, test blood sugar levels.
The application is listed as coming from Google, but it presumably is more accurately coming from the Alphabet sister life-sciences company just dubbed Verily.
The little needles people with diabetes use to puncture their skin for a blood test aren’t fun but aren’t that horrible. either. It’s just a tiny needle, not a weapon from Game of Thrones. So why would anyone want to replace this pretty simple procedure with an unwieldy wrist device that shoots something at you, micro or otherwise?
This is not try the first try Google’s made at measuring blood sugar with a wearable device. Constant readers will recall the contact lens that Alcon is supposedly making that will do much the same thing by measuring glucose levels in your tears.