Mark Campbell: James Dyson Award Winner on his Lensare glasses for epilepsy and photophobia

A young inventor has taken home the top honours at the James Dyson Awards for a pair of glasses made to tackle epilepsy.  

University of Canterbury engineering student Mark Campbell has developed ‘Lensare’, which uses smart LCD lenses that detect harmful light patterns and instantly darken, providing protection for people with epilepsy and photophobia. 

Campbell told Mike Hosking it’s still in the early stages of development, but the aim is to make it as bulletproof as possible. 

He says the next steps are to make the prototype as robust and unobtrusive as possible, but after that there’s the potential to commercialise it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The James Dyson Awards celebrate our best young inventors and
University of Candeby engineering student Mark Campbell's won it for
his adaptive glasses. Now, these are smart LCD lenses that
detect harmful light patterns instantly darken and that provides protection
for people with epilepsy and Marcus with Usmark morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, thanks for having me, not at all.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Does it work with migraines as well?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yes, so it's designed for people with photo sensitive epilepsy
as well as photophobia.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Fantastic and it works. It works every time. It's bulletproof,
it's doable.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes, well, we're still in the early stages of developing
the prototypes. But I'm working to greig down on it
and it's I will develop it so that it's it's
as bulletproof as possible.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
So what did you have to explain to the judges?
Is it the idea or is it the actual You know,
to what stage do you have to present judges a product?

Speaker 2 (00:51):
So with the James Dyson Award you can submit ideas
and later products in the later stages. But I've developed
a prototype, So I submitted a prototype fat that was
developed so that it was actually functional.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Do they what do they look like currently and does
it mean they have to look that way forever or
could they be manufactured in a style of any glass
you want. It's the lens that's the key.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
So it's currently in a three D printed produce three
D printed casing, so it's still in the pretty early stages,
so it's not the prettiest, but it was the main
goal with that prototype was just that still something that
was functional, so laid it down the line. It will
look at that pretty air with maybe injection molded parts,
but at the moment it's not the prettiest, but it

(01:39):
does do the tracks right.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
How cutting edge is the.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
Tech so current? There are currently no products that are
like this, so it's pretty new to this industry.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, and you got the idea then from where?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So I originally got the idea from automatic darkening welding
mask which are similar in the way that they protect
welders from blinding sparks, but I applied it to a
different industry and the area of photosensitive epilepsy and photophobia.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
How much time, energy and money has gone into.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
This a lot of times. So I've started this project
about a year and a half ago, and there's just
been a stitty stream of working to develop it, to
get it to the most to the most robust stage
that I'm at now where it can actively detect slashes
and safely darken.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
Wow, have you got you got patents on it?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yes? So before entering the James Dyson Award, I was
working to develop a provisional patient which has been filed now.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Brilliant. So this is scalable. Do you think commercially?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I think so the next steps that are kind of
just to develop the prototype and make it as robust
and unobtrusive as possible. But once that is and I
think there would be potential and to commercialize it.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
And what's the time frame you reckon?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
H It's hard to know. I think that once medical
testing is done and it's validated, I think it can
it might only be a year after then that it
could be starting to get into people's hands.

Speaker 1 (03:20):
That's brilliant. When do you graduate?

Speaker 2 (03:24):
I graduate in two years, so I am in my
first year of university.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
And you'll do what?

Speaker 2 (03:30):
So I'm currently doing a bachelor's of Product design, but
I am unsure as to what I will do after university.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
I think you'll be okay, Mark, something tells me you'll
you'll go well, go on your make Congratulations on it,
well done, Mark Campbell, who's the James Dyson Award winner.
And God we found a really bright, astute, alert, successful
young New Zealander excellent. For more from The mic Asking Breakfast,

(03:58):
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