Periodic Reporting for period 1 - RV by RE (Rabbit-View by Rabbit-Eyes)
Reporting period: 2019-06-01 to 2019-11-30
The world is digitizing at an awe-inspiring rate, and life without digital screens has become unimaginable. Our biology, has in many aspects not been able to keep up. Our eye-sight deteriorates as we get older, slowly, inexorably, every one of us develops farsightedness ( from the age of 35 this becomes a significant problem for some). Farsightedness comes in many forms, such as hyperopia and presbyopia, but they all lead to poor vision from nearby. In hyperopia, light is focused to a point posterior to the retina as a result of inadequate refraction at the cornea or lens, or, less commonly, a short axial length, leading to blurred vision. Modern technologies such as built in navigation systems can be difficult to read, especially for the elderly, leading to potentially dangerous situations. Furthermore, screen use is continuously increasing in the work place, making those that have farsightedness a vulnerable group.
With the interdependencies of smart devices, it is said that in today’s society, the smartphone has become so ubiquitous that people just cannot lead a life without their phones. Mobile devices have brought about innumerable workplace revolutions and enabled a new generation of workers to be productive. This productivity improvement has eluded the aging workforce however. According to The Vision Council, 70% of workers today require vision correction. Uncorrected astigmatic refractive errors have a negative impact on the productivity of (elderly) workers. According to the National Eye Institute, it costs an average of $2,100 per year in lost productivity for every employee with eye strain, which can be a result of untreated or under-treated presbyopia. Modern phones and displays are not designed for an aging workforce and population, making those that have farsightedness a vulnerable group. Many of the elder workforce find it challenging to use productivity enhancement applications and are either reassigned to more menial tasks, or retired from the workplace completely. Also, in a private setting, visual impairment, even if correctable, has a negative effect on social functioning. Elderly unable to use mobile phones can become isolated from their social circles.
Rabbit-eyes has developed a solution for farsighted users of digital devices. With the Rabbit-view technology light emissions from the display of digital devices are manipulated and refracted with algorithms and microlenses. With this groundbreaking solution for automated correction, people suffering from farsightedness no longer need (varifocal) eyeglasses to read content on digital devices.The main objective of this project is to assess the feasibility of a successful introduction and roll-out of the Rabbit-view technology in Europe. The project aimed to answer both technical and financial feasibility questions and convert the findings into a detailed market implementation roadmap.
With the interdependencies of smart devices, it is said that in today’s society, the smartphone has become so ubiquitous that people just cannot lead a life without their phones. Mobile devices have brought about innumerable workplace revolutions and enabled a new generation of workers to be productive. This productivity improvement has eluded the aging workforce however. According to The Vision Council, 70% of workers today require vision correction. Uncorrected astigmatic refractive errors have a negative impact on the productivity of (elderly) workers. According to the National Eye Institute, it costs an average of $2,100 per year in lost productivity for every employee with eye strain, which can be a result of untreated or under-treated presbyopia. Modern phones and displays are not designed for an aging workforce and population, making those that have farsightedness a vulnerable group. Many of the elder workforce find it challenging to use productivity enhancement applications and are either reassigned to more menial tasks, or retired from the workplace completely. Also, in a private setting, visual impairment, even if correctable, has a negative effect on social functioning. Elderly unable to use mobile phones can become isolated from their social circles.
Rabbit-eyes has developed a solution for farsighted users of digital devices. With the Rabbit-view technology light emissions from the display of digital devices are manipulated and refracted with algorithms and microlenses. With this groundbreaking solution for automated correction, people suffering from farsightedness no longer need (varifocal) eyeglasses to read content on digital devices.The main objective of this project is to assess the feasibility of a successful introduction and roll-out of the Rabbit-view technology in Europe. The project aimed to answer both technical and financial feasibility questions and convert the findings into a detailed market implementation roadmap.
The project consisted of four tasks:
Task 1. Determine the technical feasibility of Rabbit-View and its wide array of features
During this task Rabbit-eyes analyzed and determined the technical requirements of the Rabbit-view technology for the different market segments. In order to upgrade the technology from TRL6 to TRL9 Rabbit-eyes had to overcome 2 main technical challenges:
1. Reduction in brightness and resolution
During the SME project a new lens has been developed that mitigates this issue. On the brightness end, the new lens reaches almost a similar brightness as normal screen usage. The resolution challenge has been vastly improved, the results show that with the latest lens technique the received pixel information has no visual reduction of the received images anymore.
2. Battery drain by intensive algorithms
By changing the setup of the algorithms to a solution that automatically leverages CPU and GPU cores in the most effective manner saves battery drain in a massive way. Though the usage of Rabbit-View is still taxing on battery life it is a vast improvement and shows no real difference compared to other applications that are continuously used.
Task 2. Determine demonstration strategies
The eventual goal for the company is to license the product to OEM’s who can embed the technology within their products. In order to convince the market on the uptake of Rabbit-view a large-scale demonstration is necessary. The determined demonstration strategy is to build a community and develop a product that shows the possibilities of Rabbit-view with a phone case solution that can be fixed to consumers’ smartphones.
Task 3. Partner Search for Rabbit-view deployment
Rabbit-eyes has executed an intensive search for partners and other stakeholders. Rabbit-eyes has found several partners to create a strong European consortium for the demonstrator project. Amongst those are partners who can develop the phone case with embedded electronics and can take care of the alignment of the screen.
Task 4. Develop Business plan
This is attached to the feasibility report
Rabbit-eyes has written a business plan outlining the commercialisation of Rabbit-view. The plan includes a commercial strategy and market implementation roadmap. Rabbit-Eyes' business case with forecast expectations, market and sales plan shows the economic viability of Rabbit-View. Based on the forecast and projected profit and loss statements a net profit compared to the costs will go up
- First year 7%
- Second year 10%
- Third year onwards 30% + (smaller percentage increases per year)
One of the biggest challenges on the financial viability of Rabbit-View was to get production costs reduced drastically, primarily on generating the multi lenses sheet. Discussions with a future partner has given us insight in the cost structure of ordering large scale lenses based on a copper mall. Production costs can be brought down to 5 cents or lower depending on the amount of ordered lenses.
Task 1. Determine the technical feasibility of Rabbit-View and its wide array of features
During this task Rabbit-eyes analyzed and determined the technical requirements of the Rabbit-view technology for the different market segments. In order to upgrade the technology from TRL6 to TRL9 Rabbit-eyes had to overcome 2 main technical challenges:
1. Reduction in brightness and resolution
During the SME project a new lens has been developed that mitigates this issue. On the brightness end, the new lens reaches almost a similar brightness as normal screen usage. The resolution challenge has been vastly improved, the results show that with the latest lens technique the received pixel information has no visual reduction of the received images anymore.
2. Battery drain by intensive algorithms
By changing the setup of the algorithms to a solution that automatically leverages CPU and GPU cores in the most effective manner saves battery drain in a massive way. Though the usage of Rabbit-View is still taxing on battery life it is a vast improvement and shows no real difference compared to other applications that are continuously used.
Task 2. Determine demonstration strategies
The eventual goal for the company is to license the product to OEM’s who can embed the technology within their products. In order to convince the market on the uptake of Rabbit-view a large-scale demonstration is necessary. The determined demonstration strategy is to build a community and develop a product that shows the possibilities of Rabbit-view with a phone case solution that can be fixed to consumers’ smartphones.
Task 3. Partner Search for Rabbit-view deployment
Rabbit-eyes has executed an intensive search for partners and other stakeholders. Rabbit-eyes has found several partners to create a strong European consortium for the demonstrator project. Amongst those are partners who can develop the phone case with embedded electronics and can take care of the alignment of the screen.
Task 4. Develop Business plan
This is attached to the feasibility report
Rabbit-eyes has written a business plan outlining the commercialisation of Rabbit-view. The plan includes a commercial strategy and market implementation roadmap. Rabbit-Eyes' business case with forecast expectations, market and sales plan shows the economic viability of Rabbit-View. Based on the forecast and projected profit and loss statements a net profit compared to the costs will go up
- First year 7%
- Second year 10%
- Third year onwards 30% + (smaller percentage increases per year)
One of the biggest challenges on the financial viability of Rabbit-View was to get production costs reduced drastically, primarily on generating the multi lenses sheet. Discussions with a future partner has given us insight in the cost structure of ordering large scale lenses based on a copper mall. Production costs can be brought down to 5 cents or lower depending on the amount of ordered lenses.
With the commercialization of the Rabbit-view technology Rabbit-eyes will provide the worlds fist groundbreaking solution for farsighted users of digital devices such as tablets, navigation systems and mobile phones. Conventional vision correction methods like glasses merely rely on optics in order to alter light refractions. Rabbit-View is a completely revolutionary technology that surpasses the state of the art as it combines the use of optical elements with computational imaging. During the project these two main components have been improved significantly. the technical end beyond the state of the art;
1. Lens design and manufacturing
2. The software hardware combination
The design of the lens is groundbreaking and on the edge of what is technical feasible with the current available techniques (according to our collaboration partner Philips Innovation Services). Because the lens design has been drastically improved, the software component with several added mechanisms needed to be changed as well. The created lens design, changes and added mechanisms that have contributed in these positive end results will all be patented.
There is significant potential human and socio-economic impact. In Europe alone over 140M people suffer from a bad eyesight. With the Rabbit-view solution the elderly workforce and population will be able to fully participate in society. When commercializing the technology Rabbit-eyes will enter a large potential market, with the project directly contributing to the creation of new jobs in the EU.
1. Lens design and manufacturing
2. The software hardware combination
The design of the lens is groundbreaking and on the edge of what is technical feasible with the current available techniques (according to our collaboration partner Philips Innovation Services). Because the lens design has been drastically improved, the software component with several added mechanisms needed to be changed as well. The created lens design, changes and added mechanisms that have contributed in these positive end results will all be patented.
There is significant potential human and socio-economic impact. In Europe alone over 140M people suffer from a bad eyesight. With the Rabbit-view solution the elderly workforce and population will be able to fully participate in society. When commercializing the technology Rabbit-eyes will enter a large potential market, with the project directly contributing to the creation of new jobs in the EU.