All eyes on eye-tracking technology

Apollo Matrix hosted a gathering of friends and colleagues at our office earlier this month.  We ate, drank, and connected while one local startup received industry-expert feedback on their elevator pitch.

What began as a semi-regular, after work get together evolved into an opportunity for RightEye LLC, a Bethesda-based company, to showcase its groundbreaking eye-tracking technology solutions for vision tests and vision therapy. CEO and co-founder Adam Gross was in attendance as company president Barbara Barclay gave a brief pitch to the assembled crowd. Barclay had RightEye’s deck on hand, as well as some of their eye-tracking hardware to showcase.

For those of us in the tech world, eye tracking can be a valuable tool when evaluating the efficacy of visual design and usability. However, RightEye is seeking to bring eye-tracking technology into our physical, day-to-day lives. Other companies are using eye tracking to evaluate and improve athletic performance; the audience at Apollo headquarters saw firsthand how the technology could be applied to so much more from a health and safety standpoint.

One big takeaway from their pitch was the use of eye tracking to better recognize and monitor concussions in athletics at any level. Additionally, healthcare professionals make use of eye tracking to conduct efficient visual performance tests that quickly identify visual disorders. For those of us in the room who weren’t working on improving our backswing, these use cases proved to be of great interest.

The feedback Barclay and Gross received was overwhelmingly positive; their focus on use cases that fall outside the popular perception of eye-tracking technology was engaging to a diverse audience, as well as effective in communicating their value as a solution. The feedback they received was most timely; RightEye applied and was accepted to the BigIdea CONNECTpreneur Fall Forum on September 17^th.  They will give a 6-minute presentation to an audience of around 250 VCs and angel investors.

Old friends got a chance to catch up, new friends were made, and a local company received casual, constructive feedback on their pitch and concept. In startup parlance, we had the networking, crowdsourcing, and value-add covered.