My Articles on Tech-enhanced Life

Menu Reader: Hands Free LED Magnifing Pendant

Lighted Magnifier: Read menus in dim light

Reading under poor lighting conditions is a common problem, not only for reading menus, but also for reading in bed, or seeing small type in a poorly lit space. What is needed is some type of lighted magnifier. There are four categories of solutions for this common problem. The pro’s and con’s of each solution are detailed below, as well as in the individual product listings we link to.


arthritis clothing

Arthritis Sufferers: Struggling with Clothing?

We have been looking for  good arthritis clothing solutions. These products range from various special shoes for arthritis to a special type of arthritis bra. This article uses videos from around the web to demonstrate some of those solutions, and we add our comments and questions.


Freedom Wear

First Freedom Wear Meetup held in New York City

We held our first Freedom Wear Meetup in New York City on June 25th. We had a lively discussion sharing our backgrounds, experiences and visions, and touched on a number of opportunity areas that might warrant further discussion and exploration.


My Background:

Sylvia Stein is an experienced veteran of brand consulting with an emphasis on ideation and innovation; as such she brings a fresh perspective to every project and client engagement. Building on her solid, 25-year background in developing new concepts and products, she reinvents processes and crafts ideas that inspire transformative innovation.

Sylvia is currently an independent consultant and founder of Venture Concepts, which brings breakthrough ideas together with visionary teams to launch new product concepts in a wide range of product categories.

From 1991 to 2004, Sylvia served as President and Founding Partner of Consumer Eyes, Inc., a New York–based new product/innovation consulting company specializing in identifying consumer insights and trends and leveraging them into strategic, yet innovative new product concepts. At Consumer Eyes, Sylvia spearheaded a Consumer Immersion model of concept development.

Partial list of Consumer Eyes Clients:  Coca Cola, Unilever, The Campbell’s Soup Company, Kraft, Pfizer (Warner Lambert), Procter & Gamble, Kraft, Clorox, Hasbro, Schering-Plough Corporation, Motorola.

Sylvia is also a founding partner of BuzzBack, an online market research platform and service that engages the consumer in novel ways and utilizes the full potential of Web-based interaction (data collection, data mining, and data delivery) to reveal new levels of insight and learning for its clients.

Earlier in her career, Sylvia was Creative Director at Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, and a project executive with Gerald Schoenfeld, Inc. in Tarrytown.

She is a graduate of Harvard University.

Learn more about me: