When Research Meets Eyecoming: The Counter-Intuitive Path Behind an International Top-Journal Paper

In 2024, a paper published in the prestigious international journal Information & Management (Elsevier, A-class in information systems) quietly placed Eyecoming on the global map of academic research into assistive technology for the visually impaired.

The paper is titled: Are real-time volunteer apps really helping visually impaired people? A social justice perspective. The research team spans HKU Business School and the University of Sydney, and the study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

In this study, Be My Eyes, Eyecoming (listed in the paper as "SmalloveHelps"), Tianshi Zhiyan, and Yuntong were examined side by side as representative global platforms for real-time visual volunteer assistance.

What Did the Research Find?

The study used a mixed-methods approach combining questionnaire surveys and in-depth interviews, examining the real-world social justice impact of real-time volunteer apps from the perspectives of both visually impaired people (VIP) and normally-sighted volunteer users (NIP).

The findings are thought-provoking. These apps do strengthen the sense of social connection for both groups. For congenitally blind users in particular, using such platforms significantly raised their perceived sense of social inclusion. Volunteers, in turn, gained genuine feelings of fulfilment and emotional reward from helping others.

Doing good while risking harm is a deep problem that deserves our constant attention.

How the Findings Echo What We've Been Doing

We have never believed that "more volunteers = better platform."

In Eyecoming's early days, volunteers told us they would go weeks or months without receiving a single assistance call. Goodwill without an outlet gradually fades. This is a problem many platforms overlook — we are not only serving visually impaired users, we are also serving our volunteers. A platform that continuously gives volunteers a meaningful experience is the only kind that's truly sustainable.

This logic aligns at a deep level with what the academic paper found: the relationship between volunteers and visually impaired users is not about having more — it's about having the right match. An oversupply of volunteers erodes volunteer engagement and may, paradoxically, make it harder for visually impaired users to be seen as equals.

2026: Doubling Down on Our Social Mission

In 2026, Eyecoming's blind-user app underwent a new round of updates. The core direction was not feature accumulation — it was a renewed focus on the platform's public-benefit nature: making every connection warmer, ensuring volunteer service happens between the right people.

We believe true "technology for good" is not measured by scale, but by whether each act of help is real, and whether each connection brings equality rather than pity.

When academic research validates our instinct, we feel both a sense of gratification and a deeper sense of responsibility.

Eyecoming's Place on the Global Stage

In 2019, Eyecoming partnered with HONOR to launch PocketVision at IFA Berlin — the world's first integration of a low-vision assistive tool with a mainstream consumer device, which received public recognition from the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB, UK) at the same time.

In 2024, scholars from HKU and the University of Sydney included Eyecoming in international academic research, placing it in the same discussion as Be My Eyes.

This is not an ending — it's a beginning. China has more than 17 million visually impaired people, approximately one-fifth of the world's total. Serving this community well is itself a significant contribution to the global landscape of assistive technology.