Dear friends,
I'm Honglei Yu, founder of TimVision.
Ten years ago, I was a graduate student in the Optoelectronics Lab at Zhejiang University. Near the campus gate was a massage studio run by visually impaired therapists—a place I often visited to unwind after long hours of research. Back then, I kept asking myself: What real-world problems can my research actually solve?
Then one day, a blind therapist told me: "Do you know what we fear most? Not darkness—it's being afraid to go outside."
That evening, back in the lab surrounded by code and blueprints, something clicked. The true value of technology isn't how advanced it is—it's whose problems it solves.
What if we could use AI to translate visual information into audio? Could that help visually impaired people "see" the world? This idea took root like a seed.
On day one of this journey, I wrote in my notebook: "Make research meaningful." I've lived by those words for ten years.
People often ask if it was worth leaving a six-figure salary. Let me share a moment. One afternoon in 2017, a user from Fuyang used our first-generation navigation device to take a bus alone for the first time in his life—all the way to our office. The first thing he said to me was: "Finally, I'm not a useless person anymore."
In that moment, I knew some choices never need to be regretted.
Over these ten years, we've iterated our products again and again, stepping into users' lives. The hardest part of building this company wasn't funding or technology—it was truly understanding what users need. Because we can't experience the world as visually impaired people do, every feature and interaction requires relentless listening and validation.
Our users aren't "customers"—they're partners growing alongside us.
There are 17 million visually impaired people in China—one in every hundred. Yet we rarely see them in daily life, because transportation barriers and unfriendly environments force them to stay hidden.
This is our mission and our promise: to give visually impaired people the abilities everyone else takes for granted—the freedom to go wherever they want, whenever they want.
This new year, TimVision AI smart glasses will officially launch. This isn't just a product release—it's our commitment to embark on a new journey with every user. From lab to production line, from concept to reality, we're ready to deliver this gift of "light fused with intelligence" into their hands.
And this is only the beginning. We'll continue deepening our work in AI visual intelligence, launching more innovative products—lighter form factors, more powerful features, more thoughtful use cases—so that technology can illuminate the lives of everyone who needs it.
Technology for good. Vision for the future. This is our mission—and our answer to this era.
Honglei Yu
Founder & CEO, TimVision
Spring Festival 2026