Unveiled at CES 2020 by French company Lexilife, Lexilight is a lamp that makes it easier for people with dyslexia to read. Research suggests that people without dyslexia have a dominant eye, resulting in a single image being produced in the brain when they read. But people with dyslexia have ‘two dominant eyes’, which can result in an unclear or ‘mirror’ image being produced. Lexilight uses pulsing LED lights that encourage one eye to take control and send a single, clear image to the brain. Lexilife say they’ve tested the lamp on 300 people with dyslexia, and 90% of participants said that they could ‘effortlessly read a text illuminated by the lamp.’ The lamp works for reading from both paper and screen, and costs USD 550.
It’s estimated that up to one in ten adults has some form of dyslexia. If this lamp really can help alleviate the condition, it could be transformative for millions. Meanwhile, any business can draw some underlying lessons:
All For One. ‘Inclusivity’ might feel like a buzzword from the past decade, but in 2020 the quest for a truly inclusive consumerism is far from complete. We have seen a host of innovations in this vein, from IKEA furniture for people with disabilites to MasterCard’s True Name credit card for non-binary consumers (read our trend POST-DEMOGRAPHIC EMPOWERMENT for more examples!). All of these are heightening consumer expectations for practical innovations that serve a previously excluded group in a tangible way. Long gone are the days when a brand is deemed inclusive simply because of an ad campaign featuring a plus-sized model. The challenge for you? What practical innovation can you roll out to serve consumers who belong to niched, underserved, and marginalized groups?
Human Needs. Take a tour of CES 2020, and you’ll see plenty of shiny new tech toys, from robots that ferry toilet paper to cat robot waiters that meow at diners. Most of them won’t have a lasting impact. And that’s because they don’t serve a fundamental, unchanging human need. In contrast, by improving the reading of dyslexic people, the Lexilight taps into several such needs: for information, entertainment, and self-realisation. It’s a message we’re relentless about, but it always bears repeating: the best innovators see new technologies through the lens of fundamental human needs, and create innovations that serve those needs in new ways.
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