New technologies are introduced into medicine. From now on, the treatment of amblyopia is possible in virtual reality, where the person is immersed in an interesting game that helps to eliminate the problem of lazy eye.
How it all began
In 2013, James Blaha founded the company Vivid Vision, which was engaged in a program of virtual reality for vision correction. The idea is that gamification of exercise (when exercise is a part of the game) allows faster and better to cope with such a problem as amblyopia (lazy eye).
This virtual therapy is conducted using a virtual reality helmet with special software. The man wears a helmet, and then runs an application that causes the eyes to work coordinated together. Currently, therapy virtual reality is already successfully used by hundreds of clinics around the world. The absolute advantage of this therapy is the fact that therapy can be performed at home. For this purpose the company has launched the product Vivid Vision Home, adapted for home use.
A few words about amblyopia
Amblyopia is a condition in which one eye is almost not involved in the process of view, why the disease also called lazy eye. There is such a disease, usually in childhood due to a substantial difference in visual acuity between the right and left eye. In this situation, the brain ignores the signal received from the weaker eye. Thus, suppressed the normal binocular vision. It is noteworthy that even with the elimination of the causes of this disease, the brain is still unable to make a normal picture image, namely to perceive the volume.
Traditionally, treatment for amblyopia is to ensure that healthy eyes, put on a bandage. Thus, healthy eyes off from the view, passing the entire burden on lazy eye. It is believed that 400 hours wearing this bandage enough to train the lazy eye and vision correction. Such treatment can be successful if it launched on time in early childhood.
How does virtual therapy
Today, using virtual reality successfully conducted the treatment of amblyopia, strabismus, convergence insufficiency and other eye disorders.
How this system works? Unlike dressings that completely disables healthy eyes when using virtual reality in the form of a game is increased and stimulation of weakened eyes. At the same time, a healthy eye is less stimulation. Computer program easily distributes the required load on both eyes, and the game mode completely immerses the patient to perform the necessary exercises to strain eyes lazy eye to correct visual acuity and restore binocular vision.
Thanks to the games of virtual reality the brain of the player is mainly aktiviziruyutsya, based on the image from the lazy eye. A few months later such stimulation visual acuity lazy eye is restored almost to a normal level.
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From the horse’s mouth: James Blaha has amblyopia overcome
Before I managed to create a Vivid Vision, visual acuity weak eyes was only 20/70. Ability to surround vision I completely was not because the deviation was more than 3500 seconds of arc. In other words, I almost did not perceive the depth of space, which is possible with normal vision. After I managed to create the first version of Vivid Vision to the helmet of a virtual reality (Dec 2013), I first saw the volume. Unfortunately, three-dimensional vision was kept from me while I was in the virtual reality helmet. However, in mid-January 2014, I began to notice that positive changes in the perception of three-dimensional image I have begun to happen in real life.
Initially, of course, it was a fairly limited ability to perceive three-dimensional images. When I removed the virtual reality helmet, I realized that I would be able to estimate the approximate distance to keys on the computer keyboard. I began to feel that my vision is improving, and I wanted to consult with your ophthalmologist is it really so or is it just my misconceptions. At the end of January I passed examination by your ophthalmologist, who informed me that visual acuity improved to 20/50 level. In June 2014, the survey results showed that visual acuity is 20/40. Despite the fact that progress began to slow down, the ability of depth perception was preserved without the use of a virtual reality helmet. Progress, however, continued, and now the sharpness of my vision is 20/25, and the level of stereoscopic vision is not more than 150 seconds of arc.
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