The Gadget Show Live, April 2013: Technology in the UK

My working day typically consists of 6-10 hours of looking at a monitor, often switching between three different ones for testing and writing, as well as my netbook.  This is often beyond my usual forum browsing and web intrigue, as well as sport and general TV.  The danger is that overtime my eyes will degrade, much in the same way that writers can get RSI – it happens to a few users and it is not that pleasant.  Jarred is attempting to deal with his RSI with ergonomic keyboards, and companies like Gunnar are developing eyewear helping with long periods of looking at screens.

With these types of ailments, the solution comes from the family of a sufferer.  With Gunnar, the Co-Founders husband developed headaches and eye pain when dealing with his IT career.  These headaches and eye issues are often referred to as DEF (Digital Eye Fatigue) or CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome).  They reached out to a friend who was a former engineer at Oakley, as well as medical experts on the issue.  The solution is what we see today - a pair of glasses with an anti-glare coating that focus the light into the eye to remove the muscular work the eye has to do.  The optional tinted lens helps filter out blue light and reduce onscreen contrast as well, and the design of some of the available frames hugs the face closer than normal, reducing the amount of moving air between the eye and the lens.

Of course, on first glance almost all the AT editors thought ‘it’s just a pair of tinted glasses’.  So the quoted science behind their solution is the product marketing explanation – an eye normally blinks 12 times a minute, but when concentrating on a monitor this can reduce to 3 times a minute, drying out the eye.  Couple this with the copious amounts of time most individuals spend in front of a screen and the eye is continuously over worked and over dried.  Gunnars try to make the eye work less.

The glasses I was shown are both coated and tinted in order to adjust the high contrast background on most applications.  The lenses themselves also magnify slightly (a few percent, but noticeable enough) such that the user does not have to sit so close to the screen, and a pair of non-tinted ones were on show for graphic designers who require accurate color definition.

I actually have some knowledge of this – I had a high-school friend who had concentration issues when looking at black text on a white background.  The solution to his woes was a piece of colored transparent plastic, which he used in every exam with success.  I can easily see where this company is coming from.

Gunnar are already selling in the US, as private sales and under prescription, and the appearance at Gadget Show Live was to drum up interest among the UK media as well as source local distributors for their product line.  The lenses are essentially the same across the range with the same coating and magnification, with various tints and non-tinted available - it is all up to the style of the frame for the user.  They were mainly being advertised as Gaming eyewear but the company also encourages corporate entities to consider the health of employees that work in front of a computer eight hours a day.

Aside from the current sole UK retailer, pricing for the gaming range is expected to be £49-£69+ in the UK with SCAN as the initial etailer, along the same lines as a gaming mouse or keyboard.  Similar to what Jarred is doing with mechanical keyboards, I have asked for a review sample in order to see how much it may affect my IT life.  My vision has classically been perfect with great range, with minor red-green colorblindness and my inability to find things like keys or memory that might be right in front of me on my desk, but I would like to see for myself if they make a difference over an extended period of time.