Electric Indigo LLC, a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) spinout, has partnered with local medical technology development center Hardware Park to develop new light-emitting eyewear designed to suppress the progression of myopia, or nearsightedness, in children.
Myopia affects nearly one in three children worldwide and has become increasingly common over the past two decades. The UAB laboratory of Rafael Grytz, Ph.D., in collaboration with Richard Lang, Ph.D., Director of the Visual Systems Group at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, discovered the important role of indigo light for healthy eye development without myopia.
Increased screen time and reduced outdoor activity deprive the eye of this important light, as modern indoor lighting environments do not provide it. 
New light-emitting eyewear designed to suppress the progression of myopia, or nearsightedness, in children.
Building on this research, Electric Indigo was founded in 2024 by Grytz, who is the Dennis Endowed Professor of Glaucoma Research in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at UAB. The company, which is funded by Innovate Alabama, was launched with the help of UAB’s Bill L. Harbert Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
“Our goal is to create a safe, noninvasive, and affordable treatment that children can use during daily indoor activities like homework or screen time,” said Grytz. “I cannot imagine a better home for Electric Indigo than Hardware Park. As a start-up company developing an innovative medical device for improving eye health in children, we need much help. Hardware Park has provided critical technical assistance and increased our chances of successful commercialization from 0 to 100.”
Founded in 2017, Hardware Park is a nonprofit innovation center that provides designers, engineers, and manufacturers with tools and expertise to bring physical products to market.
Electric Indigo recently received support through a $356,807 NIH Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. The funding will advance the technical development of the eyewear and allow Electric Indigo to launch a pilot clinical study to assess usability and safety.
Grytz believes the partnership between UAB and Hardware Park highlights Birmingham’s growing potential as a hub for medical technology innovation.
“Hardware Park has built an ecosystem of designers, engineers, consultants, and specialists that we have utilized for rapid prototyping and product development,” he said. “I foresee that Hardware Park will transform Birmingham into a new MedTech hub in the South, and I’m thankful that Electric Indigo plays a small part in this effort.”
Additional details about Hardware Park can be found at https://www.hardwarepark.org/
Learn more about Electric Indigo here.
-- Nov. 6, 2025