Adaptive optics is now beginning to have an impact in ophthalmology.
If you want to study the retina, the image obtained is generally cloudy because there is an aqueous humour [secretion] that messes things up.
Adaptive optics systems now exist that allow much more accurate diagnoses of retinas than was possible only a few years ago.
In the relatively near future, we may have corrective glasses that are not like the regular plastic ones, but can instead deform to correct for turbulence (in the eye and in the atmosphere).
There is no reason that we will not be able to read a newspaper about 50 metres away with such devices. So your eyes will have a much sharper resolution than what you have now because your eye is not perfect and the atmosphere distorts images.
It represents an application - a practical use - for space-related technology, but one that comes from astronomy.