MIT's do-it-yourself Android optometry app puts a new glasses prescription in your pocket

Our friends at Engadget just reported on a revolutionary new optometry app from MIT that lets you analyze your vision using an Android phone. It uses a small box to refract the image from a smartphone screen and makes adjustments until you can see it perfectly, just like the eye doctor did with that expensive equipment last time you visited. Here's the thing, though: this app isn't expensive. It just requires a 2-buck box to look through.

The app was designed to be used in poor areas of the world where accurate vision diagnoses are tricky to come by, but it could just as easily be for starving students who need to order glasses online so they can see the board in class and still afford the next month's supply of Ramen noodles. I'm sure this is going to catch some flack from professional optometrists (who, after all, have a degree in this stuff), but providing an essential service to people who didn't have access before is a noble goal.

Tags: android, glasses, mit, optometry, prescription, vision