We will develop a visual stimulus capable of causing a subjective visual effect that tracks blood glucose concentration. This visual stimulus would then be used in Phase II to develop a non-invasive glucose monitor, a device for which there exists a great need and a large commercial opportunity. A non-invasive glucose monitor based on this technology will be small and inexpensive, since it does not use a detector. Even though recent research has shown that diabetics are able to forestall the debilitating and often fatal complications of diabetes by frequent monitoring and control, only a small percentage of patients currently monitor their glucose levels. This is because current methods for monitoring blood glucose are painful, inconvenient and costly. Preliminary research uncovered a subjective visual effect that tracked blood glucose concentration during glucose tolerance tests on three normal subjects. A tentative model is presented for the mechanism responsible for the visual effect and its dependence on blood glucose. This research will 1) test the visual effect over a wider range of glucose levels and on a larger number of subjects, mostly diabetics; 2) test the specificity of the effect for glucose; 3) magnify the visual effect in order to make the measurements possible on inattentive or senile persons.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)
