With a low-cost binocular device that can be linked to a smartphone’s screen and a software application, eye exams are cheap and simple.
Mobile phones have developed exponentially, from simple portable phones for making calls to smart devices that can do almost anything. With the barrage of services and applications available on the market, capabilities range from paying bills to mobile diagnoses such as testing your sight with a smartphone.
EyeNetra, the start-up co-founded by Vitor Pamplona, has developed an application and an attachable smartphone device that is capable of measuring the refractive error in a person’s eyes simply and cheaply. This device, called Netra-G, is the result of an ingenious combination of optical technology and software that measures refractive errors using a pair of low-cost binoculars manufactured via 3D printing and a smartphone screen.
The YouTube ID of N4xbKtL3o is invalid.Netra technology was developed by Pamplona while he was studying in a laboratory at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the United States. The prototype he developed consisted of a viewer designed to measure the focus of light in the eye, which is attached to a smartphone screen. Once the application starts up, a series of green and red lines appear and are adjusted using a dial. From the difference between what the user sees and the actual location of these lines, the application calculates the eyes’ error of focus.
The oddest thing about this technology is that, with a production cost of onlya few euros, it performs the same function as a professional auto refractometer, the cost of which is around an eye-watering 3,700 euros. Perhaps even more surprising is that almost anyone can use it to test their eyesight and possibly order the glasses they need from an optician’s.
This project is backed by an investment fund of over $ 2 million from Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley investor. Moreover, this fund is supported by similar mobile diagnosis companies, such as AliveCor, which markets a heart monitor fitted to the iPhone, and Cellscope, a company that is developing an integrated camera to help parents diagnose otitis in their children using a smartphone.
Faced with the scepticism of some U.S. professional eye doctors regarding Netra-G technology, Khosla defends Pamplona’s project stating that 80 per-cent of the diagnosis and testing is done by a machine and Netra-G can do same work in simply and economically. On the other hand, an eye doctor from Chicago named Dominick Maino wrote an article claiming that even though Netra-G technology is able to calculate a proper sight prescription, it could never replace the work of an eye specialist.
Currently EyeNetra is testing the device in India, where some 133 million people are blind or have sight problems because they have difficulty affording eye tests or glasses. The ease of use and low cost of Netra-G technology make it a very competitive service that could improve the day-to-day lives of many people with sight difficulties in countries with limited resources.
Images | via MIT
