Smartphones Could Be ‘Eye-Phones’ Thanks To Affordable Devices

Stanford ophthalmologists might usher in a new use for modern day smartphones with low-cost devices that turn your communications device into an ‘eye-phone’, which might be confused by some to be the iPhone if it were not spelled out properly. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have come up with a couple of affordable adapters which would allow a smartphone to shoot high-quality images of the front and back of the eye. These adapters would make it a snap for anyone with minimal training to snap a photo of the eye, sharing it without any security worries with other health practitioners, or to stash it in the patient’s electronic record.

One of the developers, Dr. Robert Chang (as you can see on the right) have called it an “Instagram for the eye,” which is not too far from the truth, actually. This kind of technology could be the ideal opportunity to increase access to eye-care services, not to mention improve the ability for medical personnel to deliver advice on patient care in a remote fashion. The clever use of optics theory was implemented in order to determine the perfect working distance and lighting conditions for such a simple adapter to perform when hooking up a conventional examination lens to a smartphone. This makes us wonder – which smartphone’s camera would work best with such an idea? Of course, it would not be wise to use this for self-diagnostics, and it would also work great in developing countries and rural areas where it is nigh impossible to ship expensive equipment there.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones, Medical
Tags: Smartphones