EyeNetra – Your $2 Eye Testing Tool That Works

by dkd903 • 15 years ago

44 15 15 years ago

Zak2• 15 years ago

I know this is aimed at the third world, but it would be nice to get tech like this in the US as well. The health care debate in the US has centered around insurance to cover high costs, but removing regulatory obstacles to people using a device like this instead of an expensive optometrist seems like a more workable solution. Of course, the optometrists might not be happy about it.

meroliph• 15 years ago

I'm not entirely too sure how good EyeNetra is compared to the equipment found in your optometrist's office, as well as how accurate it is.

deepGem2• 15 years ago

I don't even know half of what the optometrist's office does. The bright light that shines into your eyes, the pupil dilator, all seems unnecessary. Those alphabet tests - really, the difference between two different 'powers' is so minimal I can barely make out. Call me a cynic - but the eye exam is an enormous waste of money and time. This device is perhaps what we need for fast and reliable eye care.

Oh and let me not even go to the spectacles cost. 150$ for a 'cheap' titanium frame, ya right :).

jaredhansen• 15 years ago

Who cares? Let those who want to spend more money and/or have insurance go ahead and spend it on expensive eye care -- but for those with less money and/or no insurance, why stop them from using a tool like this, which is surely better than the nothing they're getting today?

shailesh• 15 years ago

The equipment in the optometrist's office uses Shack-Hartmann equations, while EyeNetra uses its inverse of that. Therefore, it is gives similarly accurate results, based on which, a Doctor can prescribe the glasses. The reason the optometrist's equipments are expensive is because they are fighting against human eye, which is very efficient in absorbing light. EyeNetra is really an optical hack, but quite an elegant one at that.

Edit: clarity.

ugh• 15 years ago

So, how does buying glasses work in the US? The store I buy my glasses in has a simple and automated (but imprecise) device for quick checks, probably similar in principle to the device in the linked article. They also have all the optometrist equipment for more precise checks. (I think they share some equipment with an eye specialist who is next door.)

I only recently bought new glasses and after the automated check diverged a bit from my old values the store’s optometrist checked my eyes more thoroughly.

I didn’t have to pay anything for those checks and I didn’t have to show my insurance card. (I also payed 200€ for the frame and 200€ for the glasses so I sort of expected that level of service.) I also just could have told them to make me +0.75 (left) and −1.25 (right) glasses without any checks and they would certainly have no problem making them for me. (It makes sense to check, that’s why something like that is unlikely to ever happen.) I don’t really see the regulatory hurdles. Are you really telling me that you can’t just walk into a store and tell them which glasses you want? Do you really need a prescription? That seems unlikely.

German health insurance (at least the mandatory health insurance I’m using) doesn’t pay anything for glasses, getting a prescription is consequently not really necessary. Maybe you don’t trust the optometrist and want someone with a PhD to check your eyes – that’s certainly possible (and that’s what will cost the insurance).

Just checking your eyes, though – especially if it’s not the very first check after you noticed that something’s off with your vision – is something private companies in Germany seem to be more than happy to do without ever getting the insurance involved.

By the way, those automated devices are certainly not quite as precise but their main disadvantage is that they are dumb. I have slight Astigmatism, meaning one of my eyes has problems focusing light into one point and instead focuses it into a line. The resulting image is blurry but only in one direction. The automated device in my store couldn’t detect that, the optometrist could.

naner2• 15 years ago

Optometrists (I have a few in my family) generally are more concerned with eye health. This device isn't any more of a threat than the eye care chain stores (ValueVision, LensCrafters, etc) and the cheap-glasses websites are. Many people still prefer to get a full exam at a private practice and many businesses still provide the insurance benefits to make it worthwhile.

Also there is a lot more that goes into getting proper glasses than going through a refraction (which I'm guessing is what this does) and measuring pupillary distance (which I don't think this device can do). And contacts are a medical device which always require seeing a professional to get a prescription.

I don't think this would be much of a threat, and is probably too basic to be useful in a developed country.

EDIT: This link shoes what the NETRA can do:

http://web.media.mit.edu/~pamplona/NETRA/research.html

Zak2• 15 years ago

contacts are a medical device which always require seeing a professional to get a prescription

That's part of what I'm arguing against. If you can get the information required to select the right contacts without seeing a professional, I think that's your right. If you get it wrong because, well you really should have seen a professional, that's your problem.

A lot of the regulations concerning doctor supervision for drugs and medical devices are intended to prevent companies from marketing devices that are ineffective or dangerous to consumers who don't have enough information to make a good decision. I can sympathize with that goal, but it's heavy-handed enough to keep some reasonable options for medical care out of the reach of low-income people who might otherwise be able to access them.

jonsen• 15 years ago

Next needed is cheap glasses sold separately in half pairs. Bye two halves, each fitting corresponding eye, then snap them together at the nose bridge.

pasbesoin• 15 years ago

Someone's already made glasses whose lenses are membranes filled with mineral oil or something similar. They can be "focused" with a screwdriver (adjusting circumference, ergo pressure and convexity, or some such) -- and, of course, each lens can be adjusted separately.

They are also, per the articles I saw, cheap to make. Not necessarily a fashion statement, but supposedly quite functional. If they are for read and exist in production -- some of these "good idea" articles are just that.

threepointone• 15 years ago

this one - http://www.ted.com/talks/josh_silver_demos_adjustable_liquid... ?

TeMPOraL• 15 years ago

Last week I was visiting an optician to get a new pair of glasses and I was thinking if some of the measurements he made could be made with smartphones instead of expensive equipment. I'm happy to see that this is indeed possible and is already happening. It's always great to hear about such inventions that can make people's lives life better.

EyeNetra – Your $2 Eye Testing Tool That Works

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