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You Can Look Now: PerfectSight, A Mobile App for Your Eyes
Thanks to the minds at MIT, a new app and a $2 lens can accurately determine your eyeglass prescription. It might just help people all over the world see a little more clearly.
Posted 6/ 30 10 at 12:00 PM | Business Trends, Technology, Online Business, Computer Hardware, Consumer Products & Services, Health, Software, Telecommunications, Inventions & Innovations
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Meet NETRA, the Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment. NETRA is an "interactive display for estimating refractive errors and focal range." Don't let your eyes glaze over -- this actually makes a lot of sense. Mix together a smartphone, an app, an inexpensive external lens and some human interaction, and you get a system that can accurately gauge your eyesight and recommend a prescription. The whole shebang is much cheaper than a regular optical device like you'll find at the eye doctor's office and way more fun than an eye chart.It won't come as a surprise that this new technology sprouts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- specifically, the MIT Media Lab Camera Culture group. Here's how it works: The user downloads the app, places a $2 lens over the screen, sticks an eye up to it and follows a series of exercises presented on the smartphone. Align the patterns and the app will be able to tell just how bad or good your eyesight is. The process takes just a few short minutes.
Keep an eye out over the next year as the app is tested, commercialized and spread out around the globe. "Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment" may be catchy as all get out, but the app and accessories will be rolled out under the name PerfectSight. The app will only work with high-resolution smartphones like the iPhone and certain Android phones.
For every three dozen apps that make buzzing sounds and go ding, there is an example of an app built for the greater good. PerfectSight has the potential to cheaply and accurately give eye prescriptions to impoverished areas and users with no insurance. It won't replace an eye doctor for finding issues involving disease and medical histories, but it could open some eyes about the potential for smartphone apps. That's a concept socially minded entrepreneurs can get behind.
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Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Way cool!
All I will say to that Gary is you must be an "eye doctor."
sounds/look very interesting but are businesses selling glasses/contacts going to recognize a prescription from a smart phone instead of a doctor? probably not so you may get an accurate reading but you're still going to be paying for an exam
Hard to imagine someone who could afford a smart phone and service for it; but not be able to afford a $45 appointment with an optometrist. Not to mention that avoiding the optometrist risks missing out on detecting eye disease. This is an impressive sounding gadget; but nothing more. I wouldn't invest a dime in it as a business idea.
Interesting, but doctors' offices already have auto phoropters in their offices and although they provide accurate refractions (technically speaking) what happens when the patient doesnt see properly as with prescriptions given by the auto phoropters? Will patients be willing to pay to have the lenses remade and then pay for a proper exam?
Autophoropters are already known for giving prescriptions with two much minus power, and this device won't be any different. The problem is that although a program can simulate a distant target, the brain still knows it is looking at a target inches away. This causes the lens to accommodate, and an inaccurate prescription results. Devices such as these are great for screening, but are unreliable at best when it come to measuring refractive error.
Don't be STUPID! This doesn't protect your vision or diagnose for eye problems. Many doctors have difficulty writing an RX. Are any of you stupid enough to believe a simply object/toy is reliable??? Boy, NOT ME. My eyes are far toooo important to play games with a toy that could and usually malfunctions.
To all you idiots trying to play DOCTOR, YOU "CANNOT" GET AN EYE GLASS RX FILLED, WITHOUT A DOCTOR'S WRITTEN PRESCRIPTION. That simply protects you from injuring yourselves "dummmmmmy". YOU MUST HAVE A PRESCRIPTION FROM A DOCTOR, IN ORDER TO GET GLASSES...GET IT????
One big problem. The eye glass makers will not make a lens without a doctor's perscription