Mechanical Design and Integration of a Self-Adjustable Optical System for an Automated Refraction Device

Motivation: Uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of visual impairment worldwide. Hundreds of millions of people suffer from uncorrected refractive errors. The great majority of this population live in low resource settings. This, however, has been proved to not be caused by difficult access to treatment, as eyeglasses are a very cost-effective treatment and the majority of all visual impairment can be treated in some way, but due to a diagnosis barrier. This is to say, there are very few professionals which can correctly diagnose these errors.
This is where the QuickSee comes in. PlenOptika Inc. (USA), in collaboration with the ‘Universidad Autónoma de Madrid’, developed the QuickSee as a solution to the global health problem caused by uncorrected refractive errors. The QuickSee is a low-cost autorefractor designed with simplicity in mind to allow personnel with minimal training to obtain an eyeglass prescription. In a few seconds, it can accurately measure existing refractive errors, thus facilitating eye care access to lower resource settings and closing the diagnosis gap.
Problem: The QuickSee is currently being fully commercialized throughout the globe. It has proved to be very useful in easing access to eyecare, as well as streamlining the process to achieve an eyeglass prescription. However, feedback received from users have shown that the refraction process may be further ‘automated’ or optimized. If subjective refraction were to be incorporated in the same step as objective refraction.