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iPhone-based eye-exam kit raises $6.1M to bring eye care to a billion people across the globe

The equipment needed to carry out a proper eye examination typically costs $20-40k; the Smart Vision Labs SVOne aims to reduce that cost to just $4k by using an iPhone as part of the kit. The iPhone takes a series of photos of the eye, while an app performs the analysis and generates a prescription.

We were given a demo of the kit last year (video below), but the company needed funding to make it possible. Smart Vision announced today that it’s raised $6.1M in institutional funding led by Techstars Ventures. The funding allows it to scale its production and expand the team, helping it reach an estimated billion people around the world who don’t currently have access to eye examinations … 

Smart Vision CEO Yaopeng Zhou said that he has seen first-hand how dramatically people’s lives can be transformed by the technology. In developing countries especially, poor eye-care can perpetuate “a vicious cycle of poverty,” says the company, by reducing productivity in adults and hampering educational opportunities for children.

It’s just one of a range of iPhone-supported medical diagnostic aids we’ve seen in recent years, examples including HIV tests, skin cancer detection, eye injury diagnosis and detecting elephantiasisCheck out the video below to see just how quick and easy an eye exam is using the kit.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_9p1kFSTc8]

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Comments

  1. irelandjnr - 9 years ago

    Tech at its best.

  2. 89p13 - 9 years ago

    These types of advanced technology breakthroughs as a by-product used to be done by NASA, under government funding that kept NASA developing space technology. Now, with the dramatic reduction in funding NASA, it seems that public companies are leading the pack.

    Good news!

  3. vkd108 - 9 years ago

    Hope that one gets torrented, I could do with a quick contact lens checkup LOL

  4. Ilko Sarafski - 9 years ago

    That’s what they call a gamechanger! This could have huge impact on the people in developing markets. Especially with the insane quality of the iPhone 6 and the phones to come!

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Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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