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EyeNETRA
CATEGORIA: Qualità della vita (Vedi tutti
)
TAGLINE: Empowering hundreds of millions around the globe by democratizing access to eye care
KEYWORDS: Health, Mobile
WHERE: USA
Having poor vision can affect nearly every aspect of life, and although it’s easy for those with nearsightedness or farsightedness to know something is wrong, getting a correct diagnosis and prescription for corrective eyewear can be difficult in rural areas. A new device called eyeNETRA could change all that with a cheap, small clip-on tool for mobile phones. Developed by the Camera Culture Group at the MIT Media Lab, eyeNETRA works by having users look through a camera lens and align images on a display screen until the images come into focus.
Leveraging the ubiquity and advanced hardware of mobile phones, eyeNETRA grew out of collaborative research at the MIT Media Lab to develop and disseminate hardware apps – affordable and easy-to-use mobile phone attachments that allow anyone to measure their eyes and get a recommendation for treatment. Like a thermometer, eyeNETRA aims to empower hundreds of millions in their own homes through patient centric ecosystems to diagnosis and awareness.
Eye diagnostics today are archaic. They are large, expensive, disconnected, and difficult to operate. Because of that, access to eye care is expensive and time consuming. In fact, a lot of people think it is not worth doing an eye exam, sacrificing their health care. As a result, many people in developing nations go without eye exams and remain unaware that they have a treatable eye condition. Eye care is an area with a particularly high number of untreated: over half a billion people worldwide suffer from a type of preventable eye impairment. Uncorrected refractive errors (i.e. nearsightedness, farsightedness, and astigmatism), presbyopia (age related eye condition), and cataracts (cloudiness in the eye) result in lost productivity, lost independence, illiteracy and impoverishment on a massive scale.
eyeNETRA is the most affordable mobile eye diagnostic ever made. A combination of a mobile phone and a clip-on eyepiece that allows anyone to quickly measure their own eyes for glasses. Through mobile connectivity, our system allows users to easily access back end service providers and caregivers for consultation and treatment, enabling a complete solution from awareness to treatment.
The project was initially tested in Boston, and then rolled out pilots in India, Kenya and Brazil to see how the device worked in the field. Evaluation of eyeNETRA found that the system closely approximated the results from traditional optometry tests; the margin of error was under .5 diopter (prescriptions come in multiples of .25 diopter). The test initially only looked for refractive errors (such as myopia [nearsightedness], hyperopia [farsightedness], and astigmatism), but now also diagnoses cataracts.
The group recently won the first place in the Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project
MORE INFORMATION
Email: Contact Form
Website: http://eyenetra.com
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