Keratoconus affects approximately 1 in every 84 young Australians. Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease with cornea thinning and protrusion, resulting in irregular astigmatism and serious eye discomfort. 80% of patients suffer from dry eye, pain and other eye discomfort. Management primarily involves uncomfortable rigid contacts to improve vision. Two focused challenges are: one, discomfort from the disease and contact lenses, which hinders their life and sleep quality; Two, after removing the rigid lens from a day of work, patients have limited activity options with impaired mobility thus impaired independence. How might we care for their wellbeing and daily experience?

These individuals are facing numerous challenges in their daily life. To better visualise them, a user journey map is concluded from my research. This map captures their actions, emotions, and challenges during morning time, day time, and night time. Focusing on these two problems, I aim to provide them with vision support and eye care after they take out their contact lenses. A modular architecture was selected for a more flexible experience, as patients do not need to have vision support all the time, such as when they are sleeping.

Back in mid 2023, when the text-to-image AI wave started, Stable Diffusion was used at this stage for a personalised moodboard in the design stage. I was able to train my customised LoRa models using my favourite images from previous moodboards, and further generate images of eyewear. Besides, LoRa models can be mixed and used together to create more surprising or more controlled results.

Resulted by research with Keratoconus patients, Sooze supports patients' vision after removal of contact lenses via Virtual Retinal Projection. The headband light engine and the detachable visor collaborate to capture and deliver clear images directly to retinas, irrespective of patient's cornea condition. An electrode on the headband administers low-intensity electrical stimulation via the conductive strap to upper eye and forehead area, boosting tear production, easing eye pain and preventing eye disturbances while awake and asleep. When patients need to sleep and the visor is off, the light engine emits red light at night, further enhancing patients' sleep quality.