Founded in 2021, Xpanceo has become a pioneer in reimagining our interaction with technology. Unlike companies that develop the next generation of smartphones or laptops, Xpanceo is taking a fundamentally different approach: computing that sits directly in your eyes. At Mobile World Congress (MWC) in 2025, the Deep Tech Company has launched a variety of prototypes that demonstrate their vision for invisible, invisible computing through smart contact lenses.
The core concept behind Xpanceo technology is both simple and revolutionary: Replace the computing of traditional silicon-based devices, which feels as natural as your own perspective. By integrating advanced technology into contact lenses, Xpanceo aims to create a seamless fusion between the digital information and the physical world, which they call the “extended reality experience.” Their philosophy “the best device is not a device” reflects their commitment to keeping technology out of context while enhancing human capabilities.
These smart contact lenses are not only theoretical concepts or early laboratory experiments. At MWC 2025, Xpanceo demonstrates working prototypes from health monitoring to augmented reality (AR) capabilities, suggesting that their vision for intangible computing is approaching reality.
Three main prototypes
Smart contact lenses with wireless powered companions
One of the basic challenges for any wearable device (especially one as small as a contact lens) is power delivery. Xpanceo’s first prototype solves this challenge with a wireless powered system that significantly improves current technology.
The lens has fully remote control power transmission, which is twice as wide as previous industry solutions, allowing users to power the lens without direct contact. The Power Companion is designed as a portable accessory that can be carried in a wallet or pocket, similar in size and form to a standard contact lens case.
Despite advanced technology, the lens remains flexible and lightweight. Safety remains important – radiation levels are comparable to common wearable devices to address potential issues regarding bringing electric devices so close to the eyes.
Smart contact lenses (Xpanceo) with wireless powered companions (XPanceo)
Biosensing smart contact lenses
The second prototype demonstrates the potential of smart lenses for health monitoring. Traditional biomarker measurements often require invasive procedures, such as blood draw, which can be inconvenient and uncomfortable. Xpanceo’s biosensing smart contact lenses take different approaches by measuring body parameters directly from tears.
The lens has advanced biosensors that can be used with nanoparticles to enhance the signal of components present in the tears. This technology provides high sensitivity monitoring of key health indicators, including:
- Glucose levels are important for diabetes management
- Various hormones, including cortisol, estradiol, estrone, progesterone and testosterone
- Vitamins B1, B2, B3, E and D
By constantly monitoring these biomarkers, lenses can change personal health management. Users do not constantly recognize the body’s chemistry, rather than regularly testing, which may detect health problems early and more personalized health methods.
Biosensing Smart Contact Lenses (Xpanceo)
Smart contact lenses with IOP sensor
The third prototype addresses a specific but crucial health issue: glaucoma management. Glaucoma is the main cause of blindness worldwide, characterized by increased intraocular pressure (intraocular pressure or IOP). Early detection and continuous monitoring are essential for preventing vision loss.
Xpanceo’s IOP sensor lens provides non-invasive, continuous monitoring of intraocular pressure. At MWC, the company demonstrates the technology along with custom eye model that replicates the human eye. The lens contains an almost invisible optical mode that moves with changes in intraocular pressure.
When users scan this mode using an AI-powered smartphone application, they get real-time, accurate IOP measurements. The system can greatly improve early glaucoma detection and ongoing management, making it possible to prevent vision loss through timely intervention.
Smart contact lenses with IOP sensor (Xpanceo)
Other innovations
In addition to three main prototypes, Xpanceo also demonstrates two other smart contact lens technologies to extend its vision for invisible computing.
Improve AR vision lenses with integrated micro playback
Xpanceo shows off an enhanced version of its AR vision lens with integrated mini playback. Unlike typical augmented reality systems that require bulky headphones, the technology is embedded directly into contact lenses. Micro playback can directly post digital information on the retina, thus forming a digital and physical world.
What makes this particularly impressive is the reason for the size limitations – creating display technology is small enough to fit contact lenses while maintaining visual clarity is a significant advancement. AR vision lenses point to applications ranging from navigation and real-time information display to a completely new form of digital interaction.
Data reading lens with wireless transmission
The fifth prototype unveiled by MWC is a smart contact lens for data readings, equipped with an integrated wireless data transmission antenna and flexible electronics that can be mass-produced. This lens can transfer information from the contact lens to the supporting equipment in real time.
The supporting equipment has a dual purpose – it can serve as a charger and a computing center. This architecture allows the lens to be kept small and comfortable while offloading intensive processing tasks to the supporting equipment. The biometric information collected by the lenses collected directly on their smartphones makes the data immediately accessible and useful.
Technical achievements
Xpanceo’s prototypes are several breakthrough technologies that are striving to overcome long-standing challenges in wearable computing.
Among the most important achievements presented at MWC 2025 are:
- Low 0.5mm projector: These ultra-finished display components are able to project visual information while maintaining the thin profile required for comfortable contact lenses.
- The thinnest flexible 2D conductor in the world: These allow electronic components to bend with the lens, which is crucial for comfort and durability.
- Highly sensitive IOP sensor: These can detect slight changes in intraocular pressure while keeping it small enough to integrate into the contact lens.
- Nanoparticle-enhanced biosensor: This technology amplifies the signal of biomarkers in the tear, allowing detection at very low concentrations.
These technologies can provide solutions to a variety of challenges: miniaturization, flexibility, power efficiency, and signal detection. Previously, many of these features were considered impossible on the scale of contact lenses.
The relationship between contact lenses and their supporting equipment is a key design choice. Rather than trying to pack all the computing power into the lens itself (which creates power and heat problems), Xpanceo developed a distributed computing model.
The supporting equipment handles power transmission, data processing and connections to other systems. This method keeps the lens thin and comfortable while still achieving complex functions. The matching equipment is designed to be unobtrusive and is similar to the size of a contact lens case that can be carried in a pocket or purse.
Reshape the interactions of human computers
The deepest meaning of these lenses is the potential transformation of our interaction with computing. Xpanceo’s statement says that “the best device is device-free” shows a future in which technology exits from conscious consciousness while being closely related to our bodies and senses.
This approach can eliminate many obstacles and frictions in the current human computer interactions. Rather than typing, swiping or speaking, it may be possible to interact through more natural means such as gaze direction. This information is available at any time in our visual fields, rather than pulling out the device to access the information.
This is a major development in the smartphone era. Although smartphones make computers portable, they still require intentional attention to interacting with the body. Contact lens computing will create a world where the interface between humans and digital information is almost unaware, creating access to a truly ubiquitous and frictionless digital world.
