Stereo Blocks

A classic arcade game to help adults treat their lazy eye.

A classic arcade game to help adults treat their lazy eye.

IMPORTANT: The game must be used with red/cyan or similar colored 3D glasses.

Research has shown that a common condition known as lazy eye (amblyopia) can be treated through the use of specialized video games. It is thought that the poor vision in the lazy eye may be caused by the eyes inability to work together. Since the eyes don't work together, the brain inhibits or turns off the information coming from one eye to avoid seeing double and other vision issues.

I developed this game to help myself and others like me with amblyopia. Use at your own risk and please consult with a vision therapist about your condition if you have the time and money.

The game works by forcing both eyes to work together to play the game. Some of the game content is only shown to one eye, some to only the other eye, and some to both eyes. The brain is forced to use both eyes together in a coordinated way during the game which should lead to better coordination in the real world.

The game must be used with red/cyan or similar colored 3D glasses. The lazy eye can then see only one color such as red, while the good eye can only see another color such as blue.

The color for each eye can be selected along with it's saturation/brightness level. The saturation level selected should be such that color is invisible to the opposite eye. The lazy eye saturation should be higher than that of the good eye. As the vision in the lazy eye improves the saturation level to each eye can be made more equal. The correct saturation level to each eye is dependent on the type and quality of the 3D glasses used as well as the screen used to play the game on. It seemed that red is the most difficult color to block the other eye from seeing. Also the auto-brightness setting on a device may need to be disabled or set to a constant value to get the color settings in the game just right. The 3D glasses used definitely affect how well the colors are filtered to each eye and thus how well the game works.

Also since many people with lazy eye also have misaligned eyes (strabismus) there is an offset calibration that can be used to compensate for this. Due to the size of the device screen there is a limit to how much of a misalignment the game can correct for.

The game is compatible with the Gametel Bluetooth controller. Other users have also reported that the PlayStation 3 Bluetooth control works with the game as well. A game controller comes in handy for a tablet or for playing on a TV or monitor.

The BlueStacks Android emulator can be used to play the game on a PC.

I hope this game helps some people out or at least moves the research forward in this area.