A massive consumer advertising campaign aims to create awareness of a new lens launched by Zeiss and drive customers in store to see their optometrist.
The lens has been developed for both people who do, and do not, require vision correction, to reduce digital eyestrain. The digital lens has been developed in response to the growing number of people who use smart phones, tablets and laptops on a daily basis and as a result suffer from eyestrain and musculoskeletal symptoms.
Test wearers of the new lens had confirmed a “rapid and significant improvement in eye fatigue, dry eyes and neck strain,” according to Andrew Lin, Product Manager for Zeiss Vision Care.
A recent study conducted by the Vision Council in the United States reported nearly 70 per cent of all adults using digital devices experienced some form of digital eyestrain.2 This finding was further collaborated by a three-year study conducted by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University on the health effects of digital devices, which found 70 per cent of adults and 30 per cent of children and adolescents have reported musculoskeletal symptoms in different parts of the body in relation to the use of digital devices3.
Frequent small print and pixelated images on small digital screens can sometimes be extremely difficult to read…
Frequent small print and pixelated images on small digital screens can sometimes be extremely difficult to read, causing the eye to strain in order to focus. Additionally, the ergonomics of how we use digital devices are different to how we use computers or how we read traditional media such as books or newspapers, which further exacerbates eyestrain.
The Zeiss digital lens has been developed for people aged 25 to 49, the age when the natural lens of the eye begins to lose some of the elasticity required to adapt to different distances. Frequent switching from our surroundings and back to digital displays is demanding on the eye’s ciliary muscle. This, coupled with the diminishing capabilities, can lead to blurred vision, tired or dry eyes and neck strain.
According to Zeiss, the digital lens has an extremely large zone for distance vision, ensuring easy adaptation for emmetropes or single vision lens wearers. The lens contains a small intermediate corridor for a rapid and comfortable transition to the ‘digital near zone’; making it easy for the eye to switch between the distance vision and near objects and ensuring relaxed, stress free vision.
The number of small digital devices continues to rise. According to the International Data Corporation, one billion smartphones were sold worldwide in 2012 alone, an increase of over 38 per cent on the previous year.3 In fact, there are now more digital mobile devices in the world than people.
The consumer campaign will commence in November.
References
1. The Vision Council: DigitEYEzed: The Daily Impact of Digital Screens on the Eye Health of Americans, 2013. Study conducted by VisionWatch using a random sample of 110,000 US citizens in October 2013.
2. The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. (5 September, 2013). Health effects of using portable electronic devices studied.
3. IDC: Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, www.idc.com, 27 January 2014
