Video Game Could Treat Lazy Eye

The developers of a video game say it could help treat people with the lazy eye condition. Dig Rush adjusts the graphics to force players to use both eyes to progress through the game.

Lazy eye, which is also called amblyopia, is a condition that can develop in childhood and involves visual impairment in one eye. Although it’s often sparked off by a physical problem with the eye, amblyopia itself is actually an issue with the brain, which compensates by taking less visual information from the affected eye.

If untreated, this imbalance can remain throughout the child’s life. Not only does that mean depth perception problems, but it can also mean being unable to see well if the ‘good’ eye is ever impaired.

Historically treatment has been somewhat crude, involving either wearing a patch over the good eye or using eye drops to make it blurry, forcing the developing brain to get used to processing all the information in the ‘lazy’ eye.

Researchers at McGill University in Montreal have developed an electronic treatment technique that uses old-style stereoscopic glasses: the ones with red and blue lenses for viewing early 3D footage. The treatment involves displaying blue and red images with varying contrast, such that the patient has to adjust the level of information they take from each of their eyes to see the full picture. The researchers licensed the technique to a company called Amblyotech Inc, which hopes to get FDA approval to market it as therapy.

In the meantime, Amblyotech has partnered with Ubisoft to develop the Dig Rush game. The initial version will be a platform game played on tablet computers, with key components such as characters and the platforms being in various shades of red or blue. The idea is that players will need to use both eyes to progress.

Ubisoft plans to design the game with adjustable display settings, allowing a physician to set the contrast to suit the specific imbalance in the visual processing of the patient.

[Image credit: Ubisoft via BBC]