In this short film you are introduced a novel type of eye test, which requires nothing more than a small eyepiece that clips onto a smartphone. The device’s developers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have started trialling the gadget, and believe that it can become a standard part of the doctor’s toolbox in the developing world. The World Health Organization estimates that about 119 million people around the world remain visually impaired because of a lack of adequate medical facilities. About 90% of those people are in developing countries.

If you enjoyed this, you can watch this film about how researchers at MIT’s Media Lab are creating electronic environments where people interact with their surroundings in futuristic ways.