These CATRA Smartphone Eyepieces Help Those With Cataracts
Omar Yusuf — July 7, 2011 — Tech
References: web.media.mit.edu & gizmodo
Like polio and smallpox before it, blindness may become a thing of the past thanks to CATRA, an innovative new smartphone device developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Cataracts, a condition which clouds the vision of its victims, remains the leading cause of blindness worldwide, yet it's easily treated if diagnosed early on. With this in mind, MIT researchers have been hard at work to exploit the prevalence of smartphone technology in the hopes of reducing cataracts and, eventually, blindness in developing countries.
CATRA comes in two parts: a phone app and an attachable eyepiece. The latter scans your eye and looks for cloudy areas in the lens, which are produced when proteins group together. With a full scan of your eye complete, the application allows users to detect early-stage cataracts and delivers a diagnosis in mere minutes.
Thanks to falling production costs and to the growing abundance of cheap smartphones, MIT and Camera Culture are confident that CATRA will produce tangible effects in the medical discipline and hopefully save lives.
Cataracts, a condition which clouds the vision of its victims, remains the leading cause of blindness worldwide, yet it's easily treated if diagnosed early on. With this in mind, MIT researchers have been hard at work to exploit the prevalence of smartphone technology in the hopes of reducing cataracts and, eventually, blindness in developing countries.
CATRA comes in two parts: a phone app and an attachable eyepiece. The latter scans your eye and looks for cloudy areas in the lens, which are produced when proteins group together. With a full scan of your eye complete, the application allows users to detect early-stage cataracts and delivers a diagnosis in mere minutes.
Thanks to falling production costs and to the growing abundance of cheap smartphones, MIT and Camera Culture are confident that CATRA will produce tangible effects in the medical discipline and hopefully save lives.
Trend Themes
1. Blindness-curing Devices - CATRA and other innovative devices are paving the way for a future without blindness.
2. Mobile Medical Diagnostics - Smartphone applications like CATRA could revolutionize how health professionals diagnose and treat medical conditions.
3. Accessible Healthcare - Smartphone-based medical diagnostics like CATRA can greatly improve healthcare access for those in remote areas.
Industry Implications
1. Medical Technology - CATRA and other devices like it represent a major disruptive opportunity in the medical technology industry.
2. Smartphone Manufacturing - The growth of smartphone technology is helping to make innovations like CATRA more accessible to developing countries.
3. Healthcare Services - CATRA is just one example of the many ways healthcare providers can use technology to improve accessibility to life-saving services.
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