Eyra

The Challenge

How might we reduce the prevalence of computer vision syndrome aka eye strain and related issues caused by prolonged exposure to digital screens?

Inspiration

In today’s world, this particular problem space is prevalent and thus relatable across most societal and cultural differences. Being a diverse team ourselves, through a rather rigorous approach of brainstorming and ranking ideas, we quite naturally gravitated towards this problem space.

Individuals across all ages are beholden to digital screens ever so increasingly. By tackling this space, not only did we share common ground and understanding, but could also work on a solution impacting the broadest range of individuals - including ourselves.

Moreover, the technological approach is based on scientific research, much in line with our translational science approach here at AppHatchery.

Hence, this problem and solution space resonated on both a personal and professional level.

What it does

Eyra tracks the user’s eye, specifically the number of blinks per minute (bpm), and pops up an alert/notification when the bpm has fallen below a certain threshold which is initialized based on the user. It then provides alternative ways of relaxing the eye and taking a break including setting a timer, following along with eye exercises or a guide to the popular 20-20-20 technique. At the end of the workday, the tool gives the user a breakdown of their work session including total time spent tracking, number of alerts received, and total time spent resting. Over time, the user is nudged to have a good work to rest ratio to take good care of their eyes.

Frontend - HTML/CSS/JavaScript (Electron.js) Backend/Script - Python (opencv, matplotlib, numpy, mediapipe)

Challenges we ran into

• Communicating virtually and across timezones

• Network issues and power outages

• Building a fully functional app within a limited timeframe

• trying out new technologies - not knowing if we might run into any major blockers

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• We ended up doing everything we had initially planned which feels great! Including design details!

• We also appreciate the overall usefulness of the solution and would love to use it ourselves!

• Being able to pick up on the bpm with accuracy was an aha moment for sure!

What we learned

• a lot about eye tracking, blinks and the research behind eye strain prediction!

• AI is scary and growing too rapidly

What's next

• tracking across days/weeks - more complex analytics

• video tutorials and follow-along eye exercises

• cross-device compatibility (desktop+phone)

Where to try it out

Repository: https://github.com/AppHatchery/EyeSpy-electron