NETRA a cellphone application that test your eyes

If you have a cell phone , next time you don't need to visit an ophthalmologist for your eye test , thanks to the efforts of an Indian-origin American scientist, who has developed a simple method of testing eyes by using a smartphone and a specially designed eyepiece.This complete device together with plastic tool and software application has been given a name " NETRA "Near-Eye Tool for Refractive Assessment.

NETRA is a Sanskrit word for 'eye' . NETRA is developed by a group of researchers led by India-born Ramesh Raskar at the media lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This device will soon be field-tested in India in collaboration with the Hyderabad-based L. V. Prasad Eye Institute.
  NETRA cost just 1-2$ . With NETRA the complete test can be completed in 2 minutes. This tool not only just test your eyes , but also can check your body temperature, blood pressure or blood glucose .The software in it can determine a person’s vision prescription on the spot by using a small plastic lens that clips to a cell phone screen.The patient needs to attach the plastic to the screen of a cell phone and look into a small lens. Press the arrow keys of the phone until the set of parallel green and red lines overlap.It takes less then two minutes of your time and the loaded software provides you with the prescription data.

NETRA currently works with phones having high-resolution displays. But researchers are expanding the range of phones that it can work on and are also developing pattern designs that can work with low-resolution phones.
Source:
MIT
Techvyom