If, like me, you wear glasses you’ll be more than aware that the process of getting a check-up has changed much for the better over the last ten to fifteen years. No more is your face forced in to what looked more like some kind of torture device. Now there are pre-checks and automated changes to the device you look through.
Yes, there’s still the question of whether the circles look clearer and whether you see green or red better on any given lens. Yes, you’ll still be disheartened that you can’t read the lowest line of letters initially because your mother didn’t marry a microscope. But there’s much less awkward invasion of your personal space, and grinding of a stranger’s forehead against yours while they flash something into your eye from less than an inch away.
Eye tests of course aren’t just important for getting the right prescription of glasses. They help identify other issues that might be affecting the health of your eyes and the future of your vision.
As part of one their recent trip to Korea to take part in an immersive technology event, VRFocus Video Content Producer Nina Salomons and Editor Kevin Joyce took a trip to visit M2S who describe themselves as a ‘Media Medical Solutions Company’. As part of their work in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) solutions MS2 have created a new tool for opticians to test patient eyes that utilises a VR head-mounted display (HMD) with eye-tracking and a station fitted with a touch screen. M2S has already created five approved tests with the device which it hopes will speed up the process of diagnosing, treating and preventing eye diseases. It’s an idea that’s been around for some time, but is coming to fruition years later.
“For the medical field [eye tests] are very constant.” Says M2S’s CEO Won Jung in conversation with Nina. “They haven’t changed it testing wise and cure wise for the eye test – they’ve done the same way for fifty years. They didn’t change at all. But with our VR technology and creating the space technology we can do a much better, and quicker and easier way to do the examination.”
Jung also notes the increase in the amount of eye tests being needed in the modern world, and how faster methods are needed to keep up with demand. You can find out all the system in our interview below, and come back tomorrow when you can see what happened when we put out Editor Kevin Joyce through an unscheduled eye test.