Serbian startup develops innovative Ayo glasses - Sleep regulation, jet leg prevention and energy boost in 15 minutes

When a bit more than two years ago he went to the Netherland for his master studies, Branislav Nikolic (31), president of competition of entrepreneurs "Get in the Ring Srbija" and a member of the Managing Board of the Association of young businessmen of Serbia (UMPS), encountered unusual problem – dark and cloudy weather with a bit of sun affected his rhythm of sleep and energy. He noticed that he cannot manage to wake up easily in the morning so he started researching and saw that a large number of people in North Europe has similar problems with sleep. Therefore he tried to solve this unpleasant situation.
- There were a few solutions at the market. One of them is also Philips’ wake-up lamp which is placed in the room and then it gradually intensifies light which wakens you up in the morning. It turned out it really works since I used to get up in the morning lightly as well as in Serbia. A tiny problem was the fact that due to studies, I used to wake up at app. 6.30, so my girlfriend was also forced to wakes up at the same time –Branislav explains for eKapija
He communicated the idea to his friend and current partner at the company, Nikola Vucinic, ad a colleague from master studies, Aleksandar Dimitrov form Bulgaria is also included. The three of them started developing "Ayo glasses".

- The first breakthrough in our research was when in 2013 we applied for "Philips Innovation Award", a prestigious European competition. We went into finals; we ranked among Top 10 innovations in Europe and had a chance to discuss it with president of Philips whom we presented the idea. He liked what we were doing and he connected us with his colleagues who encouraged us to continue. There we also met head of innovations at KLM, Dutch airline. It seems we were interesting as young entrepreneurs so they supported us, we got mentorship and this is how our start up "Ayo" started –Branislav Nikolic says.
(Branislav Nikolic, Nikola Vucinic, Aleksandar Dimitrov)

Hi-tech innovation

It is a high-tech innovation so experts with whom they consulted knew a lot on the topic of chrono-biology and light therapy but not about technology and method of implementation. "Ayo" came when at the right moment since all similar solutions currently used are aged i.e. they are based on technology 10 or 20 years old. When they saw new soluctions, they saw what more could be done and majority immediately asked when they can buy "Ayo" glasses , i.e. that testing should start.

Collocutors of eKapija outline that method of work of ""Ayo glasses" is very simple. Namely, light affects dream, i.e. wake up by adjusting the level of melatonin hormone in a body.

Adjustment of internal clock

Practical implementation is already mentioned problem of wake up for work so young entrepreneurs did tests which resulted in the fact that within three to five days of usage of "Ayo" glasses 15-30 minutes per wake up, we can change chrono type from evening to morning, with the difference of 2 hours. For instance, if you were waking up at 7 but body naturally wanted to wake up at 9 – now you will wake up at 7 spontaneously, without alarm.

Glasses should be worn 15-30 minutes while eyes are open, immediately before sleep or after a wake up. Through application which is connected with glasses, a user creates his profile where he records certain habits with sleep. Through these information, chrono-matrix is calculated and the application shows when glasses should be worn– for instance when the body temperature is the lowest since this is one of the factors for hypersensitivity.

Production starts until September

Initial investment in "Ayo" was savings of the founders and then the next stage came in development of all startups – attraction of external capital. They connected with different funds and there was huge interest in this hi-tech innovation but majority of investors in that initial stage sees young entrepreneurs as highly risky project.

Today, "Ayo" startup has seven people in a team of “innovators, visionaries, designers, engineers, programmers and entrepreneurs – how they are presented at their website. Their main objective is creation of innovative solutions which millions of people will use on daily basis.

Marko Andrejic

Novalogy Sofia

Udruženje mladih privrednika Srbije

Eleven Bugarska

Ayo

Ayo startup

Ayo glasses

Ayo application

Branislav Nikolić

Nikola Vučinić

Aleksandar Dimitrov

enterpreneurship

innovations

Get in the Ring Srbija

UMPS

start up

sleep rhythm

wake up problem

dreams analysis

Philips

Philips wake up lampa

Philips Innovation Award

KLM

light therapy

hormon melatonin

cortizol

blue light treatment

jet lag

investment funds accelerator Eleven

IndieGoGo

HDT

Hoover Dam Technologies

innovation