Did you know that the average American spends nearly 11 hours a day staring at a screen? That means people are spending well over half their waking hours in front of a TV, computer, smartphone or tablet of some sort. In many cases, they’re staring at multiple screens at once. It’s a byproduct of an increasingly digital-oriented society – and the number of hours in front of a screen continues to increase noticeably every year. While this technology has helped to make just about every facet of people’s daily lives more convenient, comfortable and efficient, it does take a toll. The human body was not designed to interact with computers and mobile devices in such an intensive fashion, and increasingly, the ramifications of the lifestyle and bad habits people have adopted are manifesting themselves in unintended ways. Today, the health implications of excessive screen time have become major concern.
Take, for example, the rise of Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS), which affects as much as 94% of people who work in front of computers, according to WebMD. It’s basically like carpal tunnel syndrome for the eyes. Symptoms include blurred vision, double vision, dry and red eyes, eye irritation, headaches, and neck or back pain. But while the effects of CVS are usually temporary, if the underlying behavior is not addressed, it can lead to permanent and much more serious conditions – like myopia (nearsightedness) and even eye diseases like glaucoma and cataracts. In fact, 44% of the US population today is nearsighted, and a recent study suggests that by 2050, over 5 billion people around the world will have myopia, the primary cause of which is attributed to lifestyle.
It’s why Optometrist Dr. Roger Wu started Eyes 4 Lives, a health tech startup developing add-on solutions to computers, smartphones and other devices to address the source of the problem. The company’s flagship product right now is the Dr. i-Coach®, a patented one-of-a kind sensor and software package that helps users develop and maintain healthy computer habits recommended by eyecare professionals and organizations.
Dr. i-Coach: Fitbit for the Eyes?
Founded in 2010, Wu’s concept for Eyes 4 Lives has actually been two decades in the making. As owner of Concord Eye Center, one of the largest independent optometry practices in Southern California, currently with about 9,000 clients, Dr. Wu noticed that a high number of his patients with prescriptions for nearsightedness kept coming back with worsening conditions. After some investigating, he deduced the cause:
“When people spend a lot of time on the screen, whether it’s on the computer or a smartphone, every time they look at things up close, there is a little muscle inside the eyeball – the cilliary muscle – that gets pulled to focus,” Dr. Wu explained. “Eventually, those muscles, the more they’re pulled, the more strained they become. That’s why you get those tired and sore eyes and then eventually, the eyeball itself will become longer and longer or more elongated, and so you will become more and more nearsighted. That’s one of the most agreed theories behind people getting the nearsighted progression.”
To counter the concerning trend and, ultimately, help prevent the effects of bad computer habits, Dr. Wu created the Dr. i-Coach®, which tracks the user’s eyes, alerting users to “posture violations” and other bad habits that lead to worsening eyesight. In its current iteration, the Dr. i-Coach® comes in the form of a small, light-weight device that is attached atop the user’s screen and is equipped with infrared sensors that detect the user’s position and distance from the screen, as well as facial recognition technology to track the blink rate and sitting height. It also collects this data for the patient and their eyecare professionals to better treat or monitor their issues. The product currently retails for $199. The company says that it’s generating interest through more than 400 Optometrists in its pipeline.
“We are selling the Dr. i-Coach® through doctors’ offices right now,” Dr. Wu said. “The reason why we’re doing this instead of going to mass market is because this is a brand new product. You still need someone to explain the device to you and especially, when you can see your eye doctor, you are having issues with your eyes and you’re concerned about your eyesight. That’s why you go to the doctor. So, it’s easier for an eye doctor to explain the importance to you.”
But longer term, Dr. Wu envisions the product being built into the devices themselves, and he’s garnered serious interest from many big name device makers on that front. Though he isn’t at liberty to disclose details of those discussions yet, it’s clear that there is significant demand for what the Dr. i-Coach® does.
Ergonomics: More Than Meets the Eye
While Dr. Wu’s original inspiration for the Eyes 4 Lives was to help his patients struggling with worsening eye conditions, the potential applications for the Dr. i-Coach could vastly expand beyond that.
“Two months ago in Las Vegas, we were actually at the National Ergonomics Conference & ErgoExpoTM, which is the biggest ergonomic trade show in the U.S.,” Dr. Wu said. “We had a 10×10 booth and I would say it was the ugliest booth on the show floor, but we turned out to be one of the hottest products in ergonomics.”
This opens another huge potential market for Eyes 4 Lives. While the market for prescription lenses, frames and contact lenses generated about $27 billion in revenue in 2015 according to The Vision Council’s most recent VisionWatch survey, the market for ergonomics could be twice that size. The Institute of Medicine estimates that work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs), as measured by compensation costs, lost wages, and lost productivity, costs the economy between $45 and $54 billion a year. It’s actually a major concern for large enterprises and why more and more of them are investing in ergonomics to reduce lost productivity costs.
“For example, one of the major pharmaceutical companies told us they pay anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 employees every year to seek medical help with carpal tunnel syndrome, eye problems, back problems, etc.” Dr. Wu said. “And they said, ‘If you can help me decrease those numbers by even 5%, I can buy thousands of units’.”
“There’s nothing like this out there,” Dr. Wu added. “All the ergonomists, they came to us and told us that companies are paying them as much as $250 an hour to go in and do all the measurements and adjustments. But as soon as they leave, the employees just put their chairs back to the same position. So, if you have this device, then it can tell you exactly where you’re sitting and whether you’re actually following their directions or not, whether you’re leaning in too close and how much time you’ve gone without blinking. It can tell you whether there is too much glare around you or if it’s too dark; things like that.”
Behind Eyes 4 Lives
For Dr. Wu, his pursuit to grow Eyes 4 Lives isn’t just a matter of seizing a market opportunity. It’s a passion of his, and one that could address a very real concern for people. A concern that continues to grow.
“I could live very comfortably without doing this at all,” said Dr. Wu, who in addition to operating his optometry practice, has made the trip to China and Taiwan at least 20 to 30 times just for the purpose of securing investors and reliable manufacturers for Eyes 4 Lives. “My mortgage would be paid off, and I could take two vacations every year. I don’t need to do this. But my goal is… I was nearsighted, so I knew exactly what it felt like to live with glasses or contact lenses. It’s frustrating, especially for patients who are getting more and more nearsighted. I know it’s a major issue. There are a lot of issues associated with nearsightedness. The chances of getting glaucoma are actually much higher. There are a lot of issues involved in nearsightedness. So, it’s much, much bigger things that we are dealing with.”
The company has plans to move some of the manufacturing to the US, and has found a location in Texas where it will assemble the next-generation of the Dr. i-Coach®. To date, Dr. Wu has raised $2.78 million to grow Eyes 4 Lives, and is in the process of offering another round for accredited investors to participate. The proceeds will help the company complete its product beta launch in the third quarter of 2017, and bolster its patent portfolio and IP valuation. The company hopes to lock up potentially two enterprise clients in the first quarter of this year, which would be a very big milestone for Eyes 4 Lives. Ultimately, the company is working on improving the Dr. i-Coach® to the point where it can be incorporated into just about any device, including TVs, laptops, smartphones and tablets.
“To me, this is like a Fitbit for the eyes, but it is a little different,” Dr. Wu said. “To me, Fitbit is more of a superficial science because it measures your heartbeat, pause, how many steps you take, and so forth, but it doesn’t really change your life immediately. With the Dr. i-Coach®, we can actually demonstrate the change with how people behave in front of the computer when using it versus when they’re not. My vision is to have this device as a standard feature across all electronic devices… everything.”
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