Just got back from the ophthalmologist’s, where he tweaked my contact lens prescription. We went through several sets of lenses, each time with me looking at an typical “letter” eye chart.
Aside from the fact that you quickly memorize the letters and therefore skew your reading, this is a decent way to test vision. But it’s not terribly realistic.
The test for reading vision — near vision — involves looking at samples from newspapers, phone books, etc. Real-world stuff. So, at least in the U.S., shouldn’t the far-vision test have you reading road signs? That’s a much more realistic test — white letters on a green background at different distances, using the standard DOT letter sizes.
After all, I’m much more likely to encounter a “Staples Mill Road – Exit 1.2 mi.” sign than I am to see a black-on-white billboard reading “CTFMJK.”
The Fray
TomL says:
Only a matter of time when we see SMS on highway signs.
UYTS (Use your turn signals)
DDAD (Don’t drink and drive)
CIOTI (Click it or ticket)
STKR (Slower traffic keep right)
HUAD (Hang up and drive)
It might be an interesting experiment to get people to try to decipher the codes.
tommy says:
That graphic is not the vision test I have memorized. The one I memorized (partially) is:
E
FP
TOZ
That’s about all I remember; my vision’s been very good all my life, so I haven’t had to get it tested since probably high school…