Can playing a game on your iPad for 30 minutes really help you see better?
According to the creators of the UltimEyes app, the half-game, half-eye exam, it can. A study published in the journal Current Biology in February helped support their claim. After 19 baseball players at the University of California, Riverside used the app, the distance at which they could see clearly grew by 31%. Seven players improved from 20/20 vision to 20/7.5, an almost superhuman number.
We decided to test out the app for ourselves, beginning our experiment in late February with a baseline eye exam that revealed that my vision was in the exceptional 20/15 to 20/10 range (*dusts off shoulders*). For the past two months, I've been using the app four times per week, as directed by the company's website.
The app itself works like a game, pushing you to find increasingly transparent Gabor imagery (blob-like textural shapes) on a gray screen. Each session takes about 30 minutes and becomes more difficult as it custom-fits itself to your level of vision — even introducing "decoy" images. While the game doesn't have the sexiest design (think less Call of Duty and more "1980s text-based adventure"), the game is fun solely for the reason that it could be making your vision better.
However, in my personal experience with the app after two months of use, I saw no improvement. My second eye test revealed my vision was still in the 20/10 range and, on a less empirical level, my eyes felt the same.
Admittedly, my vision level could make it more difficult to achieve discernible results, but the outcome nonetheless raises doubts for those looking to improve their vision with a relatively cheap app.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Comments
Post a Comment