EyeNetra app brings eye exams to smartphones
updated 07:25 pm EST, Mon February 13, 2012
Promises low-cost eye exams to poorer nations
EyeNetra, a start-up working with technology developed by the MIT Media Lab, has developed a smartphone app that promises to bring low-cost eye examinations to poverty stricken populations. The Netra-G app is used in conjunction with a hardware attachment costing less than a dollar. The system checks for nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism, and then displays a prescription for eyeglasses on the smartphone.
The Netra-G system has three components, a small piece of hardware, a software app, and a smartphone. The adapter hardware snaps onto a smartphone. The user then looks into the eyepiece, and the Netra-G software tests the eye with resulting measurements for the eyeglasses.
The principals at EyeNetra hope their technology can be used to bring improved vision to the 2.4 billion individuals around the globe who suffer from poor eyesight. The problem is not providing eyeglasses, which themselves could cost only about 25 cents, but access to conventional eye testing equipment, which could cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. [via Pocketables]
