The ForgetSPECS Journey (Part 1): How it all started

The ForgetSPECS journey officially started in 2015, but my frustration with glasses and desire to be free from them began decades before. So let me take you back.

Sight is something you take for granted, that is until you haven’t got it. Like many people, it’s something I have grappled with for most of my life. Not as severe as blindness, but inconvenient vision impairment.

I needed glasses at the age of 25 so that I could see things at a distance. It was frustrating wearing glasses to the beach so I could see the kids in the ocean or watch them play sports.

Without glasses, I couldn’t read street signs, I couldn’t see faces clearly and I couldn’t drive. Prescription sunglasses were expensive. I hated wearing glasses, having to carry them everywhere and how they looked on me. You should see my graduation photo, in fact, my wife has kindly dug it up. 😳

When I was about 30, I had laser eye surgery. It was amazing! I was finally free from glasses. I could wear non-prescription sunglasses, I could see the kids at the beach and playing sports. “Freedom” I thought... but it was short-lived.

Around the age of 40, my short sight started to deteriorate and I needed glasses again, much to my disgust. For over ten years, I have again been frustrated by carrying my glasses everywhere again, losing, forgetting, breaking, scratching, and misplacing them. I’m often carrying reading glasses and sunglasses, sometimes with the two of them racked up on top of my head - no wonder I have a receding hairline!

One of the biggest frustrations I have is using my iPhone when I forget my glasses

Have you ever tried to sell shares on your phone (without glasses) before the market fell?

I did and it was disastrous. I pressed BUY instead of SELL and ended up with double the shares.

This is one I hear a lot - have you ever tried to send a quick text to a loved one without glasses, only to send it to a colleague - emojis, kisses and all? I’ve sent numerous texts over the years to my wife only to realise I’ve actually sent the text to a business associate by mistake. Oops!

Have you ever tried to book an Uber without glasses and typed in the wrong address? Twenty minutes into what should have been a 10-minute ride, I realised I was en route to a different destination - three hours away!

The real lightbulb moment for ForgetSPECS came when I was on vacation in Spain and lost my glasses. I didn’t realise how reliant I am on my glasses to read my phone. I couldn't text, read emails, take photos or use the translate app, and without Google Maps I was lost!

I asked myself, “Why am I looking at glass through glass? Why can’t a script be in or on the glass of a phone? Surely someone has solved this problem?”.

I searched everywhere. It turns out no one had solved this problem, probably because it is not an easy solution (more on the technical challenges later).

I was intrigued! I started speaking to hundreds of people with long-sightedness and presbyopia, who all had similar frustrations. People were sick of having to pull out their glasses every time they needed to read their device and they felt lost and disconnected when they lost, misplaced or forgot their glasses. They were sick of taking pictures on holiday, only to get home and realise they are all blurry.

I decided I was going to solve this problem, to help improve people’s quality of life through vision enhancement. So I started on what would be the biggest, most challenging and most rewarding journey of my career.

This is Part 1 of The ForgetSPECS Journey blog series. Next up, I share how we designed the world's first prescription screen protector using nanotechnology.

Until next time,
Darrell