AVAT — Automated Visual Acuity Test

Product

How it is shaped

Capabilities

Core testing capabilities

Fully Automated Self-Testing

Patients conduct precise visual acuity tests with minimal staff supervision, guided by clear, automated instructions.

Precise Distance Simulation

Advanced optics simulate standard testing distance in a compact space.

Auto-Recorded Results

Instantly captures and digitally records final visual acuity scores for each eye, eliminating manual transcription errors.

Consistent Standardized Testing

Every test is administered identically, removing tester variability and improving diagnostic consistency.

Randomized Optotypes

Prevents memorization of eye charts by randomizing letter and symbol sequences.

Intuitive Patient Interface

Simple on-screen prompts with multiple language options, accessible to patients of all ages and tech-literacy levels.

AVAT with its features labelled: the visual acuity module and viewing cavity, the knob that adjusts device height, the computing module with touch screen and thermal printer, and the keypad for inputs. Insets show the afocal lens system that minimises positioning effects, an adaptive optotype, the on-screen instructions and the keypad held in a hand. — AVAT — visual acuity module, viewing cavity, height-adjustment knob, computing module with touch screen and thermal printer, and input keypad.

The same AVAT taken through a test, in three numbered steps: optotypes displayed in the visual acuity module via the viewing cavity, the patient pressing the number on the keypad while an audio prompt confirms the answer, and results printed or uploaded once the test completes — with additional pinhole tests triggered automatically based on the result. — AVAT self-administered — optotypes in the viewing cavity, answers keyed with audio confirmation, results printed or uploaded, pinhole tests triggered automatically.

AVAT's pinhole test as a triage step: after complete visual acuity testing of both eyes, a result worse than 6/12 is repeated with a pinhole. Vision that improves with the pinhole indicates an uncorrected refractive error and is referred for a corrective lens prescription; vision that does not improve is suggestive of eye disease and is referred to an ophthalmologist. — Why AVAT — vision worse than 6/12 is retested with a pinhole: if it improves, a lens prescription; if not, an ophthalmologist.

Clinical & administrative

Clinical & administrative benefits

Frees up technician time, so ophthalmic technicians and assistants can focus on more complex tasks.
Enhanced patient throughput: enables pre-screening in waiting areas or parallel testing in multiple lanes.

In the field

Deployment

20 dots, 6 markets: one for every site in the field record that has a published AVAT photograph. Choosing a dot opens that site's card and photograph.

Schematic, not to scale: the markets sit in their real relative positions, north at the top, but the space between them is stretched and sites are grouped by market — the frame is not a map. The two letters by a group are that market’s ISO country code, spelled out under the frame. A dot marks a site with a published photograph of AVAT there; only the deployment named below has a date.

National University Hospital

Singapore

Medical Centre Level 17, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Rd, Singapore 119074

AVAT devices are deployed at the National University Hospital (NUH) ophthalmology clinic in Singapore, serving since 3 February 2025.

Deployed and serving since 3 February 2025

AVAT at National University Hospital, Singapore, photographed 7 July 2025 — National University Hospital, Singapore — 7 July 2025

China

Hong Kong

Indonesia

Malaysia

Singapore

Vietnam

Events

Conferences, exhibitions and demonstrations

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan seated at an early AVAT rig in 2023, his head held in the rest while a Digital Life Line team member adjusts the device — photograph by NUS Medicine — 2023 — first test of AVAT by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan. Photograph: NUS Medicine

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs and guest of honour, being shown the current AVAT at the NUH International Ophthalmology Scientific Congress on 23 October 2026 — NUH IOSC 2026, 23 October 2026 — the current AVAT, shown to the guest of honour

Field record

Where AVAT has been

27 photographs, 20 sites, 6 markets. A date under a frame is the day that file's own camera wrote; frames whose files carry no date are shown without one.