Function

• Eye exam technology helps optometrists diagnose vision and eye problems in their patients. The technology is used for common vision problems, such as near- and farsightedness as well as disease, infection and injuries of the eye.
  
  

Phoropter

• You typically look at a standard eye chart through a phoropter.eye test chart image by Keith Frith from Fotolia.com
  
  The phoropter is a common tool used during eye exams. It is a machine in which the patient sits and looks through a variety of lenses through one eye at a time, answering the doctor's familiar question, "Tell me which is better, lens one or two," until they see clearly through the best lens.
  
  

Developing Technology

• Technology, such as wavefront technology, may make the phoropter obsolete, deleting the subjective manner in which phoropters and eye charts work and replacing them with objectivity of a machine that measures vision problems with light waves traveling through the eye. Other new technologies are similar, using computers to diagnose factors from vision problems to eye disease.