Montreal-based software company Ubisoft says it’s developed a video game that could treat amblyopia – also known as lazy eye – in just six weeks, without the use of an eye patch.
The game, called “Dig Rush,” uses red-blue 3-D glasses to target and strengthen the player’s weaker eye.
Amblyopia affects about three per cent of Canadians. The condition often can lead to a loss in binocular vision, meaning sufferers are only able to see the world through one eye.
Simon Clavagnier, a researcher from McGill University who collaborated on the project, says the game is a significant improvement over current treatments.
“This video game, first of all, can work on adults as well as children,” Clavagnier told Canada AM Monday. “It’s also very fast.”
Currently, those with amblyopia have to wear a patch over their dominant eye for six hours a day over the course of two years, Clavagnier says. And unlike the tablet game, eye patch treatment only works on children up to about 12 years old.
Clavagnier says his research began five years ago, and after testing the game on about 80 adults, his team saw a success rate of 90 per cent.
“They were able to play the game very well and ended up having binocular vision at the end,” he says.
Ubisoft collaborated with U.S.-based company Amblyotech to develop the game, which is meant to be prescribed and adjusted by doctors to suit their patients individual needs. In 2013, researchers at McGill studied the use of Tetris in treating the condition, and tablet games have also been used to help children sit still through MRI scans.
Clavagnier says this newer treatment also helps tackle another side effect of the condition – the social stigma of wearing an eye patch as a child.
“This is very painful, it’s very stressful. They can’t play with the other kids,” he says. “You’d want them to play video games instead for about an hour per day for six weeks.”
