Researchers from the University of Cambridge and GlitterinTech, a startup founded by the same research group, have unveiled a fundamentally new type of optical spectrometer that delivers laboratory-grade precision in a device small enough to be embedded in portable and wearable technologies. By rethinking how spectra are measured and processed, the team has demonstrated a spectrometer costing only around $10, operating at a centimeter scale, and capable of applications ranging from industrial quality control to real-time health care monitoring.
The glucose monitoring alone will be super useful.
There’s been some Chinese wearables that have toured glucose monitoring - and to be fair, in anecdotal testing circumstances they’ve been somewhat precise (not precise enough to replace blood testing completely, but good enough as an early warning system for pre-diabetic people to do a blood test) - but they’re still not up to par for the stringent requirements for a medical device in most modern countries.
As for the anecdotal evidence. My mum has been using such a cheap smartwatch that touts a glucose monitor, and she kept testing its results alongside an approved blood test monitor (she’s not diabetic but has a thyroid condition that messes with her blood sugar, so monitoring is required), and the watch has always been within 3-4% of the blood test. Which obviously isn’t good enough for medical certification… but for pre-monitoring, lance-free quick checks, it helps.