Eye-Tests on Demand

Client: Peter Thomas, Addenbrookes <peter.thomas@addenbrookes.nhs.uk>

Everyone is familiar with visual acuity tests, where you read an eye chart on the wall, while a nurse or optometrist asks which letters you can see. These are expensive and time-consuming to run, but there may be alternatives. Imagine a display screen on the wall of a chemist, a doctor's waiting room, or a driving test centre, running the eye test as a full-screen page in a standard browser. You take out your phone, connect to a shared web server using an on-screen QR code, then stand in the spot marked on the floor at a calibrated 4m distance. All remaining instructions are delivered over audio from your phone headset, with any necessary interaction eyes-free (e.g. 'touch the left of your phone if you can see a "b", touch the right if you see a "d"'). You should ensure that the result is private and secure, including a mechanism to send you the results by email without bystanders seeing who you are (remember that the people being tested may be elderly, with poor eyesight).