Source: Optical News
It is reported that the scientists in MIT has developed a set of software and hardware to self-check the eyes and can get full RX. But at the same time, scientists say this device can not replace the trip to optometrists in case of any eye diseases.
Just 2 minutes and 2 dollars and a mobile phone are now all it takes to obtain an eyeglass prescription. Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a new application for smart phones that, when combined with a slim, affordable lens, could give cheap but also precise eyeglass prescriptions to smart phone users. This research may help enormous amounts of people around the world see better with regard to a reduced amount of dollars.
"Most ophthalmalogic equipment vary from simple eye charts to costly autorefractors," mentioned Ramesh Raskar, a scientist at MIT who seem to present the application at the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2010 Conference.
"We are somewhere in between. Right here you just use your mobile phone and a low-priced optical plate to align a series of patterns."
This combined app and monitor operates like a traditional, analogue camera with a manual focus lens. In contrast to modern day digital cameras, which focus completely on its own, the new app and screen needs the user to bring patterns into focus. Just after loading the app, a user attaches a short, conical viewfinder (around $2 currently, although Raskar believes this will soon decrease to fifty cents) to the screen of their high resolution mobile phones and looks in. A series of patterns appear. The user aligns the patterns by simply pressing buttons on the mobile phone. The more button pushed, the worse a individual's vision. The application repeats this process four times, one for every axis regarding the eyes. Throughout the procedure the application as well measures other irregularities, including astigmatism. As soon as almost all the patterns have been lined up the application issues a person's eyeglass prescription. Start to finish that needs about 2 minutes to deliver a full prescription.
Right now the new approach is exactly as precise as present ophthalmalogic devices, and much, far cheaper than many others. Within a couple of months the Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment (or NETRA) device will be a lot more accurate than most lenses, stated Raskar. The application may possess its constraints. Only cell phones with a high resolution touch screen, for example the Nexus One or the iPhone, could run this app. This application is also only useful with regard to people who can react to the directions on the screen; most kids could not work with the application.
This application could not substitute visits to optometrist, explained Raskar. Optometrists integrate a person's medical related background as well as additional aspects into a ultimate spectacles prescription. Further than the accuracy and reliability associated with a patient's eyeglasses though, optometrists additionally examine regarding eye disorders such as macular degeneration and cataracts. This MIT application do not check for medical conditions which might disable an individual involving his or her eyesight, at the very least not at the moment, claimed Raskar. Incorporating illness prognosis towards this app is one objective of the team.
This 1st stage has been developing the application. The up coming stage is to deploy it, initially in the United States and later all over the globe. MIT will be doing the job together with different NGOs in various nations to aid distribute both the application and the viewfinder, which together be recognized as PerfectSight. Within just three to six months Raskar expects to get all the things prepared to roll out globally.
"What is truly great regarding this particular challenge is that this could be implemented throughout the world," mentioned David Brady, a optical professional and professor at the Duke University. "Individuals may not get good accessibility topremium ophthalmologic devices, but throughout the world there is good accessibility to mobile phones."
"This is an amazingly simple strategy that offers you a very good measurement of a person's eye prescription,” he stated.
My question is: can the people in Africa who can not access eye doctors afford to buy iPhone 4 or Nexus One? In most of the cases, people with iPhone will sure afford to buy doctor's service. So is the tech really practical?
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Originally Posted by Oedema
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