https://www.fastcompany.com/90971739/this-18-year-old-built-a-better-computer-monitor-that-doesnt-strain-your-eyes [p] * * Login Fast Company SUBSCRIBEsearch * Premium * Co.Design * Tech * Work Life * News * Impact * Podcasts * Video * INNOVATION FESTIVALIF360 * * FastCo Works + AWS + Capital One + IBM close Login * Premium * Co.Design * Tech * Work Life * News * Impact * Lists * Podcasts * Video Events * FC Grill at SXSW * Innovation Festival * Innovation Festival 360 fastco works * AMAZON BUSINESS * AWS * BOSTON SCIENTIFIC * CAPITAL ONE * COMCAST BUSINESS * Deloitte * EPSILON * FIS * GUARDANT HEALTH * IBM * IEDC * Mckinsey & Company * OPENTEXT * QATAR AIRWAYS * SAP * SIEMENS * VERIZON * WELLS FARGO * FastCo Works An award-winning team of journalists, designers, and videographers who tell brand stories through Fast Company's distinctive lens Partnerships * FC Executive Board * Courses and Learning * FC Press AdvertiseNewslettersHelp CenterCurrent Issue Current magazine issue cover advertisement * 10-25-23 This 18-year-old built a better computer monitor that doesn't strain your eyes He's 18 and screens are in his face all day. This naturally backlit computer monitor is his way to fight the glare of modern life. [Photo: Eazeye] * * Twitter * * By Nate Berg4 minute Read Louis Huang's life in high school is a glaring blur of screens. There are the TV monitors and projectors used by teachers at his private high school in Connecticut. There are the laptops used from bell to bell by him and his fellow students. Then there are the additional devices students use for note-taking and assignments, like tablets and iPads. And that's not even taking into account the homework that requires yet more screen time. "I do work for hours on end on my laptop or on my other devices," says Huang, 18. "Your eyes get dry. It's just not a comfortable experience." The occupational discomfort plaguing Huang and many others led him to look for alternative devices or screens that caused less strain on his eyes. None worked. So, he set out to create his own. [04-90971739-low-light-computer-monitor] [Photo: Eazeye] Eazeye is Huang's answer to computer monitor eye strain. Instead of relying on bright, glaring, and flickering screens that have been proven to cause eye discomfort, Eazeye uses a novel reflector panel that illuminates the screen with ambient light. The device looks like a conventional computer monitor but opens up like a clam. The screen itself is a common flat panel liquid crystal display or LCD, a nearly translucent screen that is typically lit from behind by powered lights. For Eazeye, the backing lights are replaced with a bright white carbon fiber panel that can tip backwards up to 45 degrees. The panel bounces ambient light from the monitor's surroundings through the LCD screen, which, under the right lighting conditions, provides enough illumination for the screen to be used like normal. [10-90971739-low-light-computer-monitor] [Photo: Eazeye] Huang came up with the idea for an ambiently lit computer monitor about a year ago. He recruited a few friends at school to help refine the idea, and started talking directly to experts in LCD technology and computer monitor manufacturing. Huang's parents, who run a metals recycling business near Shenzhen, China connected him with manufacturers in the region. Once the idea seemed feasible--it's mostly a reconfiguration of existing screen tech, minus a big backing light, in a novel casing--Huang's parents began financing the development of a prototype. "Initially I wanted to get it done in a month," says Huang. The design, though, needed a few tweaks, and the initial manufacturing fell short of expectations. Huang went through several prototype designs, testing and refining. Over summer break from school in the U.S., he even travelled to the factory in Shenzhen, about three hours from his hometown of Jiangmen, to personally oversee the latest round of production. advertisement [08-90971739-low-light-computer-monitor] [Photo: Eazeye] Eazeye has just launched an Indiegogo campaign with a roughly $13,000 goal, with the intention of using that to jumpstart production on what Huang hopes will be a user-ready model, selling for a suggested retail price of $1,099. (The campaign more than doubled its goal within hours.) Without using its built-in backup lighting source, the monitor uses only about 10% of the electricity of a typical screen. Huang touts it as an energy efficient and affordable solution to the problem of screen fatigue and eye strain. "I hope this product is something that works as a regular monitor and has no downsides," says Huang, who is now in his senior year of high school. Using Eazeye is notably different from the typical monitor. The test monitor Huang mailed to me seemed surprisingly well engineered, at least from the perspective of someone who was not inventing electronics in high school. Out of the box, it looked and felt like the kind of computer monitor one would buy from a major retailer. It was only when folding the light-bouncing back panel down that Eazeye leaped out of the mainstream. Functionally, the monitor is highly place dependent. In under-lit spaces it was essentially useless, showing only a dark shadows of browser tabs and the day's onslaught of emails. Situated in front of a wide window, it was almost indistinguishable from a conventional monitor, showing the white background of a word processor through only a hint of dim. [02-90971739-low-light-computer-monitor] [Photo: Eazeye] But finding the right space was not easy. With one home to test within, the monitor performed best in places I either can't or wouldn't use as a workspace. Without sacrificing ergonomic comfort or moving an unappealing amount of furniture, the Eazeye monitor was stuck being used on a handful of desks and tables, each with less than the optimal grace of natural light. Typing this article in the early onset gloom of the American midwest, it was only really possible to use the monitor by turning on its built-in LED backlight--the part of a conventional monitor Eazeye was meant to render obsolete. But even with the LED on, the screen is noticeably less bright than the conventional monitor I regularly use. Unscientifically, this dimmer view felt less bad than staring into my usual screen, an experience I now see as probably too bright. Huang's monitor may not be the solution for every situation, but it is at least an intriguing concept that could change how some people view the glaring brightness of the screens that surround them. PluggedIn Newsletter logo The latest innovations in design brought to you every weekday. Privacy Policy About the author Nate Berg is a staff writer for Fast Company. He is based in Detroit. More advertisement Featured Video advertisement Video advertisement Tech4 great Google Podcasts alternatives for when it shuts downGoogle Maps unveils new, AI-powered navigation toolsWhat managers should know about the secrets threat of employees using 'shadow AI' NewsYour customer is the brand: What is your role?How the democratization of the creator economy can help youSurvey: Gen Zers don't want to work in factories; they see industrial jobs as low-paying dead ends Co.DesignHow the NBA designed its new In-Season TournamentExperience design is the future of design. 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