A Remote Lab for School Students that Explores the Function of the Human Eye

The function of the human eye is firmly established in biology and health sciences curricula. Functional models are often used for visualization and education and are usually available in limited numbers for many students. We have developed and implemented a remote lab that allows any student to study and understand the essential functions of the human eye. The basis of the remote lab is an exercise setup for simulating the functioning of the human eye as used in schools. The parameters are adjustable over a web interface, and phenomena such as far-sightedness and near-sightedness, accommodation to objects at different distances, as well as refractive error correction using lenses of different powers can be studied. A basic exercise for the students is to adjust the commonly sighted eye so that the object, which is realized by an object on an OLED display in the remote lab, is sharply displayed on the simulated retina.