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Can You See Me Now? MIT's Cheap Eye-Exam Attachment for Cell Phones

by Caleb Johnson on June 24, 2010 at 05:15 PM

MIT researchers create mobile eye exam deviceA team of MIT Media Lab researchers has created a simple and cheap device that performs on-the-spot eye exams. The Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment (NETRA) is a small plastic device that attaches to a cell phone screen. Users peer into it, and press buttons on the phone until a set of green lines overlaps with a set of red lines on the screen. In less than two minutes, the software determines the vision problem (if any), and writes a prescription for the person's eyes. For now, the device tests for refractive problems, like near and farsightedness, but, in the future, researchers hope it could detect more advanced problems like cataracts.

The NETRA system will first be field-tested in Boston and then in developing countries, whose people could greatly benefit from an inexpensive, mobile eye-exam device. Ankit Mohan, an MIT researcher involved with the project, claims the device costs $1 or $2 to produce right now, but that number could drop to just a few pennies in the future. Treating health problems in developing countries mostly depends on price and accessibility, so piggybacking on cell phones could keep costs down, and make vision testing much more widely available. After all, what doctor doesn't already carry a cell phone? [From: MIT News]

Tags: ankit mohan, AnkitMohan, cellphone, cellphones, eye, eyes, health, MIT, MIT media lab, MitMediaLab, netra, top, Vision

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