'Feel refreshed with eye-care goggle'
Kwon Chang-min, president of ibcare, poses with packaged eye-care goggles at his office in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. He expects brisk sales of the product in Japan and Thailand. / Korea Times photo by Park Si-soo
By Park Si-soo
Perhaps living in a city is deadly for the eyes.
Staring at computer monitors for hours for work or study has become a daily routine, for millions of people despite being aware of the associated harmful effects. In addition, smartphones trap others into using smaller screen, causing various health problems such as dry eyes that normally end up weakening eyesight.
Making things worse, obtaining a natural way to “detoxify” the eyes — by gazing at sprawling green fields with leafy trees — is as rare as inhaling unpolluted air in downtown Seoul. In reality, data from the Korean Optometric Association shows that nearly half of all people living in urban areas wear glasses.
Against this backdrop, Kwon Chang-min, president of ibcare (www.ibcare.co.kr), claims he has developed a breakthrough with which people can keep their sight protected without a change of lifestyle.
“Send your eyes to a remote green field to have a rest with your body left in downtown office,” said Kwon, developer of eye-care goggles branded ibcare. “You will feel your eyes refreshed and brightened with this device.”
The gadget, whose operation system was designed based upon patented technologies, massages skin around the eyeballs with a vibrating rubber-covered lining installed alongside its frame; exercises irises and lenses with moving green and red LED lights; and increases the mobility of the pupils by making users look through concave and convex lenses in rotation.
These eye-care services are offered along with an alpha wave sound from installed speakers, which are scientifically proven to help relax the brain and the mind. “We are capable of producing up to 7,000 of the devices,” he said.
Kwon, a former senior researcher at Hyundai Electronics which is now SK Hynix, established the medical tech start-up in 2010 in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. His firm developed the goggles with lavish investment for years and put them on sale in 2011.
Sales during the first year were humble, but surged the following year to reach 170 million won. The company aims to post 700 million won in sales by the end of this year.
“We have so far concentrated on promoting ourselves in the domestic market,” Kwon said. “We will expand into overseas markets from next year.”
The company pays attention to Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, he said, adding that a large portion of overseas sales are expected in Japan and Thailand.
“The two countries have a sizable eye care market. The demand for eye-care products such as ibcare continues to rise,” he said. “We cannot miss the opportunity.” The goggles will be exported at around $50 each.