How to test your eyesight at home: on a computer and more?

Vision is a great gift given to us by nature. How often do we not think about this until we feel that problems are appearing with our vision. Then a person is ready to undergo dozens of examinations, pay any money, just to preserve precious eye health. No need to wait until the last minute. Test your vision at home - it's very simple. To do this, use the following methods, many of which are familiar to you from childhood.

How to test your eyesight at home

Traditional method of checking vision using tables

Many of us have had our eyes checked by an ophthalmologist at least once in our lives. To diagnose visual impairments, the doctor uses special tables that depict letters or icons of different sizes. Such symbols are called optotypes.

They are drawn in black on a white background and are arranged in lines in order of decreasing size - from large letters to small ones. The doctor determines visual acuity based on which lines the patient can read and which ones he cannot.

You can carry out similar diagnostics at home by simply printing out the table in the required format. But such a vision test is fraught with a number of difficulties.

You will need proper, good lighting, a certain distance from the person to the table, and an assistant who can point out mistakes made.

To simplify the procedure for checking vision at home, online versions were created based on existing tables.

Why is a diagnosis of visual impairment necessary?

Every person should take care of the health of their eyes, because thanks to them people receive up to 80% of information about the environment. It is important to undergo a full examination at the clinic at least once every two years, even if there are no concerns. In ophthalmology, a large number of eye pathologies are classified. Some of them have obvious symptoms, others go unnoticed, but only up to a certain point in development.

Early diagnosis of such diseases is the key to vision stability.

Even if a person does not feel discomfort in the eye area and changes in the clarity of perception of the surrounding world, the potential danger should not be ignored.

People who are aware of a diagnosis previously made by an ophthalmologist need to visit a doctor once a year. This will allow the ophthalmologist to adjust treatment (if one has been prescribed), as well as monitor the dynamics of the quality of vision and the level of development of pathology.

With systematic diagnosis, a specialist will be able to fully control the process and prevent unwanted deterioration in the condition of the human visual system.

Particular attention should be paid to regular eye examinations if:

An injury has occurred;
Planning to become pregnant (or already pregnant);
There are current diseases of the vascular/nervous system;
There is a risk of hereditary visual pathologies (cataracts, glaucoma, etc.);
Surgery was performed;
There is a slight deterioration in vision;
There were signs of any discomfort.

Checking the visual system will not take much time. Thanks to the technical capabilities of ophthalmology, vision diagnosis occurs in a matter of minutes.

Computer vision testing: 3 rules for successful diagnosis

Checking vision on a computer is a convenient and simple way of self-diagnosis, which does not require special equipment or special conditions for its implementation.

Online methods for assessing the quality of vision are based on the same tables from the ophthalmologist’s office, but in proportionally reduced sizes.

There are general rules for how a vision test should be carried out using a computer.

Diagnostics should be carried out in a room with good lighting: bright enough, but not causing discomfort to the eyes.
The visual organs should rest for some time before the test. Immediately before an online vision test, you should not read, view social networks, sew, or perform other activities that put strain on your eyes.
Testing should be carried out when you are feeling well, with normal body temperature and blood pressure. You should not take a visual acuity test online while intoxicated.

Also, some sites can provide individual recommendations (for example, on a person’s distance from the computer) for a more accurate diagnosis of visual impairments.

All visual tests that are conducted online can be divided into several main categories:

to assess visual acuity;
to determine color blindness;
to assess contrast sensitivity;
for the diagnosis of astigmatic disorders;
to determine refraction.

Snellen chart

Another type of visual acuity testing is the Snellen chart. This pattern contains rows of letters, called optotypes, that decrease in size from row to row from top to bottom. At a distance of sixty meters, a person with good eyesight can easily read the top lines. But to test your vision yourself, you will need only 6 meters between you and the image. A person with good vision can freely read one of the bottom lines with each eye separately. And the bottom lines (there is already small text there) are already used to test near vision.

How effective is a computer vision test?

Despite the fact that the online check uses the same tables as in the ophthalmologist's office, self-diagnosis on a computer cannot replace a visit to the doctor.

It is effective only as a preliminary assessment of the condition of your vision, allowing you to notice the problem in time to seek help from a specialist.

Using these tables, you cannot prescribe glasses or contact lenses yourself, because the diagnostic accuracy is not 100%, and the check itself does not take into account your anatomical parameters and other important characteristics. Only a doctor can make a final diagnosis and prescribe appropriate treatment or correction.

Checking visual acuity

To find out how sharp your vision is, you will have to undergo testing using a series of tables. They are printed, and the test at home is much the same as in the ophthalmologist's office.

Sivtsev table

Sivtsev’s table is an image with letters of the alphabet of different sizes printed on it. To create it, only 7 letters of the alphabet were used (M, K, N, Sh, Y, I, B), but they have different combinations and different sizes. Moreover, in one line all characters will have the same width and height.

Sivtsev table

Table. Parameters of the Sivtsev table.

Parameter	Indicators
Vision test interval	0.1-5.0 dioptres
Distance to table	5 m
Step between the first 10 rows (0.1-1.0 diopters)	0.1 diopter
Step between 11 and 12 rows (1.5-2.0 diopters)	0.5 dioptres
Step between the last additional rows (3.0-5.0 diopters)	1.0 diopter

The table is also equipped with additional columns, where D is the distance (m), showing from what distance the image is clearly seen by a person with excellent vision. The second column, labeled V, demonstrates visual acuity if a particular row is read at a distance of 5 m. A person with good vision is able to read row number 10 at a distance of 5 m.

Visual acuity test

Advice! When passing the test using this table, you should illuminate it with an incandescent lamp (1 pc.) or fluorescent lamps (2 pcs.) to an illumination level of 700 lux. In this case, the light should fall only on the table, and not on the person’s face.

It is recommended to take the test using Sivtsev’s table by printing it on paper. But you can also go through it from a computer monitor. The rules are the same. It is only important to consider the scale of the image.

Eye test charts

Other table options

The Orlova table is an analogue of the table described above, but it is intended for testing vision in young patients. Instead of letters, it depicts drawings of animals, which also change size from large to small from top to bottom. Similar to the table above, this one has lines D and V. A child with 100% vision should see line No. 10 perfectly from a distance of 5 m .

Orlova table

There are other symbols in Golovin's table. Optotypes of a certain shape are used. These are rings that have breaks. They, similar to the previous options, can also have different sizes in each specific row. This table works exactly the same as the two previous options.

Golovin table for testing visual acuity

There is also Rosenbaum's table. It is a tabletop plate, which, unlike the options described above, is placed at a distance of only 36 cm. Optotypes are the letters E, turned in different directions, zeros and crosses, numbers.

Rosenbaum tabletop

On a note! According to this table, the quality of vision is determined in other units of measurement - Jaeger.

The most popular online vision tests - table by Sivtsev, Orlova, Rabkin

Sivtsev's table.

The optotypes in this table are Russian letters, and this is the most popular method for assessing visual acuity online in adults. To conduct testing, you need to set individual parameters on your computer: the distance at which your head is from the monitor and the screen resolution.

After this, you need to lean back in your chair, place your feet comfortably on the floor, relax your neck and position your head so that the screen is at eye level. Then you need to close one eye with your palm and read the letters from top to bottom. Upon completion of the test, the computer will give you ready-made results, by which you can judge your visual acuity.

Orlova's table.

Sivtsev’s table is not always suitable for testing children’s vision, because many children do not know the letters. In this case, you can use Orlova’s table. It has a similar principle, but the optotypes in this case are simple symbols that are understandable to children - an elephant, an asterisk, a teapot, a car, a fly agaric and others. When showing your child schematic drawings from top to bottom, you need to record the number of errors. The lower the line in which the baby makes three mistakes, the higher his visual acuity.

Rabkin tables.

Another popular way to evaluate the quality of your vision is to conduct a color vision test. Color blindness and its varieties involve color blindness in a person, when he is unable to distinguish colors and shades. The Rabkin table will help you check yourself for color blindness online. Strictly speaking, this is not one, but several polychromatic tables, on which numbers or geometric figures are depicted using colored dots on a contrasting background.

A person with normal vision should be able to clearly distinguish all the numbers and figures that the test offers him. If this does not happen, then with a high degree of probability it can be assumed that the person has color vision disorders.

When you take the color blindness test online, there are certain conditions that must be met. Pictures must be viewed from a distance of 1 meter with both eyes, do not linger on one image for more than 10 seconds, do not squint and maintain a straight head position until the end of the test.

Bailey-Lovey table

Ophthalmology has a wide variety of ways to obtain visual acuity test results on a monitor, among them, and offers different ways to calculate the results. If in the Sivtsev-Golovin tables calculations are carried out based on the principle of arithmetic progression and measure changes in the sizes of letters (rings), then the Bailey-Lovey system suggests using a geometric progression of changes in the size of optotypes with a denominator of 1.26 and the interval between letters in a line depends on the width of the letter, and The spacing between lines depends on the height of the letters.

Other computer vision tests

Duochromatic test.

This method of checking vision on a computer helps determine the refraction of the eyes. The duochromatic table is a colored background, vertically divided into two halves - red and green. Letters or other optotypes are printed on this background, similar to tables for testing visual acuity.

The purpose of the test is to determine against what background a person sees optotypes more clearly.

If it is red, then most likely he is nearsighted. If it is green, then farsightedness. If a person sees letters or symbols equally clearly in both halves of the table, this indicates normal eye refraction.

To conduct such a test online, you need to sit at a distance of one meter from the monitor and alternately read the optotypes, first on a red and then on a green background, recording the number of errors made.

Test to detect astigmatism.

One of the most popular is the test called “Radiant Figure”. The patient is asked to look at several drawings in which the rays diverge from the center to the periphery.

If the rays begin to blur approximately halfway through their length, this may indicate visual impairment. In a person with astigmatism, the border where clear vision of the rays ends usually has an ellipsoidal or other complex shape.

And finally, let us remind you once again that any online tests to identify visual disorders can be considered nothing more than a reason to contact an ophthalmologist for an accurate diagnosis and the prescription of adequate therapy.

Possible problems and their causes

Visual impairment may be of the following nature:

Difficulty focusing on objects that are close or far away. Caused by farsightedness and myopia.
Blurring the picture in the eyes. This problem is caused by astigmatism and often occurs together with myopia.
Loss of certain fields of vision. May be a symptom of retinal detachment, damage to blood vessels, trauma, etc.

There are two most common causes for visual impairment: genetic predisposition and age-related eye degradation.

The role of human behavior and hygiene is important: if you are careless about your vision, if it is constantly overstrained, genetic defects will manifest themselves much stronger and more severely, and senile degradation will make itself felt already at the age of 40-50.

The general principle of impaired visual acuity is that the light rays entering the retina in a healthy eye converge strictly at one point on the retina, and information about a clear image is sent to the brain.

With astigmatism, myopia or farsightedness, the rays arrive out of focus, and nerve signals transmit a blurry image to the brain.

The reasons for this may be different: too large a distance between the lens and the retina in case of myopia, weakening of the muscle that refracts the lens in case of farsightedness, or a violation of the sphericity of the cornea in astigmatism.

Where can you get your eyesight checked in Moscow?

An eye exam in a clinic is a compromise between convenience and low cost. You choose a day and time that probably isn't right for you, but you have no choice.

In private optics everything is different. You sign up for diagnostics based on your schedule. If you decide to stop by the salon on a casual basis, you won’t need an appointment at all: the doctor will see you right away. Our ophthalmologists are most often not limited by appointment time: each patient is given exactly as much time as is necessary for a thorough examination and selection of correction products. An eye exam and lens selection take on average 30-40 minutes. The doctor will select contact lenses based on your wishes, capabilities, and work characteristics. He will teach you how to take them off and put them on and tell you about the rules of care.

The vision test and selection of glasses will also take no more than 30 minutes. If a child comes to the appointment, this time can increase to an hour, since children need to examine the fundus, and this requires dilation of the pupil with the help of medications.

Our showrooms in Moscow

Eye test in an optician's salon

Vision testing is an important and necessary procedure that requires highly qualified specialists, knowledge and skills in the field of optometry and vision physiology, and patience and understanding from the patient.
Computer vision diagnostics are carried out in any medical office of the OPTIC CITY company. Moreover, we are pleased to inform you that we offer both a standard vision test procedure and an in-depth one in the OPTIC CITY offices on Polyanka and Taganka.

Most often, our patients are interested in the question of how much an eye test at an optician costs. Some argue that the procedure should be free, citing salons that use this technique to attract clients. We are always honest with our customers, so we do not hide the fact that we do not include the cost of an vision test in the price of glasses. Each medical office in the network has a state license for medical activities, and our ophthalmologists are certified doctors with extensive experience. That is why the price of a vision test is only 800 rubles, regardless of how much time it takes to select glasses or lenses, as well as patient training. However, OPTIC CITY also offers free express diagnostics, which will help you quickly determine whether there are visual impairments and whether you need glasses. But this service does not imply issuing a prescription or selecting glasses. This can only be done during a full vision examination.

When should you have your eyes checked for farsightedness?

Farsightedness (hyperopia) is a type of ametropia in which a person has difficulty seeing objects located next to him, but at the same time he can clearly distinguish everything at a distant distance. Farsightedness often develops before the age of 18. After the visual organs are fully formed, hypermetropia may disappear. Sometimes it appears in adulthood. The reasons for this are various: head and eye injuries, infectious ophthalmological diseases, tumors in the area of the visual organs and others. First degree hypermetropia may not have a significant effect on the quality of vision, so not all people consult an ophthalmologist on time. It is worth knowing the main symptoms that accompany farsightedness: