Scientists have been struggling to fight retinal degeneration in an elegant way. The most practical solution so far involves external devices that send wires to the back of your eyes. There might be a much more graceful approach before long, however....
Right now, gesture control in virtual reality typically requires an expensive PC and specialized sensors. But what if you can only afford (or simply prefer) VR on your phone? Don't worry, you're covered. EyeSight Technologies has developed gesture...
James Blaha has amblyopia or lazy eye, a condition wherein the nerves that connect one of the eyes to the brain do not develop. As a side effect, James could see only out of his “good eye,” losing depth perception in the process. Doctors told James that he would never see the world in three dimensions, but virtual reality changed his actual reality.
It was previously believed that lazy eye could only be treated up to a certain age. But James has been following research about curing lazy eye in adults, and this eventually led him to try the Oculus Rift. You see, lazy eye leads to a lack of depth perception not because the “bad eye” isn’t functional. It’s because the eye’s poorly developed nerves result in blurry or delayed images. To simplify things, the brain ignores the feed from that eye in favor of the input from the good eye. The result is clear vision, but without depth perception.
With the Rift and its dedicated display for each eye, James saw the potential to correct his condition. This led him to develop Diplopia, a virtual reality game designed to combat lazy eye.
Diplopia’s fundamental mechanic is that it distributes the visibility of crucial objects between the two eyes. The game can also increase the brightness and contrast of the graphics that are seen by the player’s weak eye while doing the opposite with the graphics meant for the good eye. These tweaks force the brain to use both eyes to form a more complete image. James testifies that “[b]y playing Diplopia about 20 hours total, 15-30 minutes a day over 5 weeks, I was able to gain the use of my weak eye and see the world in 3D for the first time in my life.”
Diplopia is actually the medical term for double vision. But far from just having a clever pun, Diplopia (the game) can also reduce the effects of diplopia (the condition).
Diplopia will be released later this year for $399 (USD), but right now you can donate $99 to James’ company Apollo VR and you’ll receive a copy of the game when it’s released. Apollo VR will use the donations not just to finish Diplopia but to give copies of the game and even Oculus Rift units to people who could use the treatment but can’t afford it.
It’s a fact that staring at screens of all kind will strain your vision. However, there’s a new app that’s available for iOS and Android, which is supposed to help improve it. Fact or fiction?
The Ultimeyes app was released for computers before it was launched for mobile devices. The app is a game that’s supposed to work on improving your visual acuity. In the game, you end up trying to track down blobs on the screen that are shifting around. This is supposed to improve your eyesight over time, by playing in 25 to 30 minute intervals.
You’ll have to shell out $5.99 on iTunes or Google Play to try it out for your googly eyes.
Imagine being able to stare at your computer screen all day long without your glasses or contact lenses. A farfetched though for myopic folks like me, unless we undergo surgery; or we see the fruition of the i-Free concept. The idea is to have auto-correcting screen that portrays images according to the prescription number you have. This ways you strain your eyes lesser and it helps your vision in the long run. I’m all ears to know more if this idea is plausible; any comments?
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Turning regular ol' devices into motion-activated wonders is all the rage these days, and a company called eyeSight is determined to stand out from the pack. The brains behind eyeSight claim to have developed a purely software-based solution for equipping PCs, TVs and mobile devices with 3D gesture controls using existing standard cameras. It sounds like a pretty sweet deal, but it all comes down to whether or not eyeSight can deliver on its potential. If it can, then it could be a promising sign that gesture-controlled technology is on its way to becoming more accessible for budget-conscious consumers, since a software setup would negate the need for costly hardware. Currently, the platform is limited to developer SDKs, but you can watch an eyeSight-powered Google Earth demo after the break.
There's been significant progress in bringing sight to the blind in recent years, and this looks set to continue that miraculous trend. Scientists at Stanford University have invented a subretinal photodiode implant for people who have lost their vision due to degenerative retinal diseases. Existing tech involves batteries and wires, but the new implant works without such crude appendages. Instead, it's activated by near-infrared beams projected by a camera that's mounted on glasses worn by the patient. Those beams then stimulate the optice nerve to allow light perception, motion detection and even basic shape awareness. The glasses also have an onboard camera that records what the patient sees. It hasn't actually been tested with humans just yet, but the first few rodentsvolunteers have yet to lodge a single complaint.
Scientists have been struggling to fight retinal degeneration in an elegant way. The most practical solution so far involves external devices that send wires to the back of your eyes. There might be a much more graceful approach before long, however....
Right now, gesture control in virtual reality typically requires an expensive PC and specialized sensors. But what if you can only afford (or simply prefer) VR on your phone? Don't worry, you're covered. EyeSight Technologies has developed gesture...
