This iPhone-Based Eye Exam Is Changing the World

Trips to the eye doctor are dreadful. Not only do the visits mean filling out paperwork, getting your eyes dilated and sitting in the waiting room forever, but they also entail the terrifying + dreaded eye chart. Thankfully, eye care is getting a much-needed digital upgrade thanks to companies like Opternative, where you can take that eye exam at your computer, and the recently funded iPhone-based SVOne. Getting ahold of some prescription lenses is rapidly becoming a lot less painful.

Smart Vision Labs’ SVOne is a recently funded “precise, portable and powerful” smartphone-based autorefractor. The iPhone + app-assisted device, with more than 200 hours of battery life, allows for eye exams to happen anywhere. From a routine visit at a nursing home or a school to the duration of a mission trip, those worldwide that previously didn’t have the accessibility to proper and affordable eye care will now have that opportunity.

With this device, in order to get a brand new prescription, all an optometrist has to do is line up the device with the eye and tap the iPhone 5s (included with the SVOne kit) to capture images. Then the software calculates the patient’s refractive error and generates a prescription in seconds. You’ll be on your way to pick out some new frames without having to complete that scary eye chart and never be terrified of a future eye exam again. When can we schedule our appointment?!

What are your thoughts on SVOne? Would you use it for your own eye exam? Share those thoughts with us in the comments.

(h/t 9to5Mac, photos via Smart Vision Labs)