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Myopia treatment 'smart glasses' from Japan to be sold in Asia
- whoisburbansky 6y agoIt looks like the article doesn't have any details on how this works, anybody care to speculate on a potential mechanism here?
- sedatk 6y agoFrom the article: It projects an image from the lens of the unit onto the wearer's retina to correct the refractive error that causes nearsightedness. Wearing the device 60 to 90 minutes a day corrects myopia according to the Japanese company.
- google234123 6y agoHow does this actually help treat nearsightedness when not wearing it? Does it change the shape of the eye ball?
- throwaway314158 6y agoSince it doesn't come in contact with the eye, that doesn't seem to be likely. It could be training the muscles that adjust the curvature of your lens.
- bilegeek 6y agoIt doesn't seem like it. They've had what you're talking about already: Orthokeratology[1], in which contact lenses temporarily reshape the cornea. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthokeratology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthokeratology
- whoisburbansky 6y agoNitpicking, but training eye muscles to tighten/loosen and thereby change the shape of the eyeball is more along the lines of what the technique apparently claims to do, and OP is asking about. Orthokeratology changes only the shape of the cornea, not the eye ball itself; it's a bit like talking about making a telescope physically longer/shorter vs. simply switching out the lens at one end for a different one.
- unishark 6y agoOrthokeratology does both in developing children, according to a couple studies referred to in their link.
- mmcconnell1618 6y agoNo details in the article but I assume the "smart" part of the name implies it can adjust the image to adapt to different people. It's possible it has some kind of algorithm to slowly adjust the prescription over the 60 to 90 days so that your body begins to adjust by making eye muscles stronger. The visual equivalent of braces for your teeth. No real details, just speculation.
- londons_explore 6y agoit's just a bunch of LED's in a ring. The 'smart' part is the person selling these...
- drewzero1 6y ago(Speculation) Most non-surgical treatments I've looked into to help with nearsightedness are focused on strengthening the muscles that shape the eye's lens. I wonder if this is designed to train those muscles.
- feanaro 6y agoIt's probably based on the theory that over a longer time frame the eye adapts to slightly defocused images in order to bring them in focus. The key is that the image must be defocused only slightly, not grossly.
- RHSeeger 6y agoIt's amazing what the eye can adapt to. The story of the man who wore the glasses that turned everything upside down... and his brain just adapted to it and he saw things normally... is fascinating to me. And then there's my eyes. I have severe double vision (as a result of surgery last year) and my brain is just like "meh, suck it up"; and I'm left walking into things on regular basis because there's two of everything. How come _his_ brain figured out upside down, and mine can't figure out 2 of everything? (I'm not actually asking, just complaining a bit /sigh)
- taneq 6y agoYeah, adaptation is incredible when it works but is also hit-and-miss. I don't like the trend of hyperventilating about "your body is amazing and can adapt to anything" because it comes with an unspoken rider of "so if you have problems it's probably just a character flaw".
- taneq 6y agoSo wear slightly weaker glasses? Yep.
- google234123 6y agoI don't think this has been conclusively demonstrated yet.
- benibela 6y agoThere was one famous study that discovered wearing weaker glasses made myopia worse, and then everyone was too afraid to make further studies
- misterbwong 6y agoMore details from the Bloomberg PR: Kubota Glasses technology works to reduce the increase in axial length associated with myopia by projecting myopically-defocused virtual images generated using micro-LEDS on the peripheral visual field to actively stimulate the retina. Passive stimulation using myopic defocus is already in use in the US with a contact lens, “MiSight^® 1 day” by CooperVision, which is U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved to slow the progression of myopia. This product, which uses multifocal contact lens technology, passively stimulates the entire peripheral retina with light myopically defocused by the non-central power of the contact lens. Kubota Glasses technology leverages nanotechnology in its electronic glasses-based device and seeks to reduce the progression of myopia by actively stimulating the retina for shorter periods while maintaining high-quality central vision and not affecting daily activities.
- Bud 6y agoKey words: "reduce the progression". Which means that marketing this as a cure is a complete fraud.
- Method-X 6y agoPerhaps if they are given to children, it would result in them permanently developing 20/20 vision.
- TylerE 6y ago20/29 isn’t some perfection. It’s merely typical. Many people with good eyes can see quite a bit better than that.
- gcheong 6y agoMaybe there is a difference between active and passive retina stimulation in terms of ability to correct myopia? From the article it sounds like they are still determining if they can actually cure myopia and how long the effect lasts. Of course, at least in the US, how they are able to market them depends on what they get FDA approval for.
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- WORLD_ENDS_SOON 6y agoCompletely speculation, but I wonder if it's using the same mechanism explored in the famous upside down goggles experiment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upside_down_goggles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upside_down_goggles Gizmodo article talking about the effect: https://io9.gizmodo.com/does-your-brain-really-have-the-power-to-see-the-world-5905180 https://io9.gizmodo.com/does-your-brain-really-have-the-powe... Basically, if you wear goggles that distort your vision for long enough, your visual processing adapts and "corrects" for the distortion such that you can function normally. Then if you remove the goggles your brain still tries to correct for the distortion that isn't there (for a while at least), so the world appears distorted without the glasses.
- stevebmark 6y agoIt doesn't work, this is terrible reporting.
- dangjc 6y agoThis is similar to the “active focus” method: https://endmyopia.org/ https://endmyopia.org/ I’ve been in this Facebook group for a while and lots of people have great personal anecdata about their improvements. It’s really interesting to see a medical device come out and if they have clinical trials to back it up.
- JacobSuperslav 6y agothis method is absolute snake oil. Google around. Most myopia is axial in nature - in layman terms - your eyeball is just too long. No amount of exercises or staring into the sun is going to reduce its length.
- nelsonmandela 6y agoVision guides the growth of the eye: if spectacle lenses cause images to fall either behind or in front of the retina (hyperopia or myopia, respectively), eye growth compensates for the optical effects of the lenses https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&tool=sumsearch.org/cite&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks&id=15312645 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom...
- philipswood 6y agosnap. dame paper, different links.
- dangjc 6y agoThe eyeball is not “just” too long. It elongates as a response to the stimuli from the lens projecting an image at a focal length behind the retina. Most kids are not born nearsighted. It develops over time. This is how.
- philipswood 6y agoSo, they eye works pretty much like a camera - but it's not a camera: it's a complex dynamic self-assembling, self-tuning adaptive structure. The fact that it's geometry is roughly static around a focal length that has sharp focus on the retina is a wonder of homeostasis with at least three known tuning loops: 1) the lens Moving on swiftly... 2) a slower feedback loop adjusting the choriod (hence focal length) in the order of hours. 3) an even slower loop adjusting the eye geometry over longer periods of time. check out: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627304004933 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089662730...
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- f430 6y agonow if only they had something for astigmatism. There's surprising lack of progress
- plussed_reader 6y agoThat's a tough nut to crack as everyones axis to the astigmatism is custom, nevermind the combination of powers to compensate for the actual focal issues. And all of those details shift over time, too.
- f430 6y agoI wonder if there is a way to "read" how elongated your eyeball is, detect imperfections on the surface level and create a smart glass that adjusts what you see based on these "customizations". Imagine training the brain to see properly, I doubt it will change in adults however. Even wearing light sunglasses helps tremendously but because of the socially frowned upon nature of wearing shades indoors and the long term effect of opening up the cornea constantly isn't good, it is a bandaid problem. I look good too in shades and I can't use astigmatism as an excuse similar to how using one's Asperger syndrome diagnosis as a license to be insensitive cannot expect positive societal feedback.
- plussed_reader 6y agoEnchroma has a product to correct for varities of color blindness, but they overall effect is still sunglasses to those looking at you. Like anyone with a visible disability it takes education and time to normalize things, triple-so for those with disabilities that are not immediately presenting.
- benibela 6y agoThere are such measurement devices: wavefront aberrometers There are also corresponding glasses, but no smart glasses
- graeme 6y agoUgh. I had fairly stable myopia and was content. Recently developed astigmatism in my strong eye and so my overall vision is substantially worse. Anyone know what can cause sudden onset of astigmatism in adulthood? It appeared a couple years ago and seems stable. Not sure over what period it appeared, probably in 3-12 months.
- kyriakos 6y agoPay walled.
- wpietri 6y agoI have a lot of questions, but I'd definitely pay if it worked. I've very slowly been getting more nearsighted, but I mainly avoid wearing glasses. My optometrist said that wearing glasses would speed the slide, although I'd eventually end up at the same level of myopia. I'd much rather wear glasses that fix the problem than make it worse.
- fatnoah 6y agoI was in the "slowing going nearsighted and avoiding glasses" phase for quite some time and the result was regular "ice-pick" headaches and migraines. Getting glasses fully cured all of that. My prescription also hasn't changed in 10 years, so (for me, at least) glasses have only had a beneficial effect.
- dj_mc_merlin 6y agoI've been nearsighted my entire life and do not wear glasses. I get the headaches after a couple of hours of wearing them. More than likely it's more to do with what you're accustomed with than how good your vision is.
- jacquesm 6y agoThat sounds more like a set of glasses that are not optimal for your eyes.
- foobarian 6y agoAlso sounds like the prescription is not too bad. Those of us with -5 and under do not really have a choice not to wear corrective lenses :)
- dj_mc_merlin 6y agoIt's fluctuated from -4.5 to -2.5 over the years. Currently on the better end I think, but I haven't been to an exam in a long while. I have friends with lower than -5 and from trying on their glasses, I would also wear them if my vision was that bad. Even at -4.5 the only major annoyances were street signs and confusing people from far away though.
- bilalel 6y agoMore to read about this on Bloomberg [0] and BusinessWire [1] [0] https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-12-17/kubota-vision-provides-update-on-kubota-glasses-wearable-device-for-myopia-control https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2020-12-17/kubota-v... [1] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201217005811/en/ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201217005811/en/
- nsxwolf 6y agoIt's not a great headline. My first reaction was "that's what glasses do".
- jonplackett 6y agoYeah I had the exact same response. There needs to be a 'permanently' in there somewhere.
- Darmody 6y ago"Through further clinical trials, it is trying to determine how long the effect lasts after the user wears the device, and how many days in total the user must wear the device to achieve a permanent correction for nearsightedness." Permanently wouldn't be very accurate either.
- jonplackett 6y ago> how many days in total the user must wear the device to achieve a permanent correction Sounds like they think it will be permanent, since they use the world permanent in that exact snippet you quoted.
- dang 6y agoOk, we've edited the title above to make it clear that it's a treatment device.
- shwestrick 6y agoSome additional information here: https://www.kubotaholdings.co.jp/en/ir/docs/20201216_EN_eSpec_wearableprototype_final%20%282%29.pdf https://www.kubotaholdings.co.jp/en/ir/docs/20201216_EN_eSpe... Assuming this device is actually legit (I'm skeptical...), it would need e.g. FDA approval to be used in the USA, correct?
- tyingq 6y agoThere's an interesting paragraph in there: "myopic defocus is already in use in the US with a contact lens, “MiSight® 1 day” by CooperVision, which is U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved to slow the progression of myopia. This product, which uses multifocal contact lens technology, passively stimulates the entire peripheral retina with light myopically defocused by the non-central power of the contact lens. Kubota Glasses technology leverages nanotechnology in its electronic glasses-based device and seeks to reduce the progression of myopia by actively stimulating the retina for shorter periods while maintaining high-quality central vision and not affecting daily activities." Which seems to indicate the main beneficiaries will be children, to slow the progression of myopia. As it mentions, there are already multi-focal contact lenses used for that purpose. Since the contacts don't seem to be marketed at adults, I suspect this will be similar.
- outworlder 6y ago> leverages nanotechnology What's the "nanotechnology" they are using, and how would that relate to the device's function? I'll see if I can find blockchain and machine learning somewhere in there.
- tyingq 6y agoThey have you covered in other press releases: "Kubota Vision Demonstrates 3D Imaging Capabilities Using AI on PBOS"
- gumby 6y agoPoor choice of words; the headline should read "Myopia treatment 'smart glasses'..." "Eyeglasses" are considered corrective lenses in US (at least) usage (because they correct the distortion of the body's lens).
- dang 6y agoOk, we'll use that above. Thanks!
- jonplackett 6y agoDamn my long-sightedness!
- ihaveajob 6y agoReads like snake oil to me. I'd love to learn how this devices reshapes your eye lens when not worn. There are methods out there that people swear by, but I haven't seen a drop of evidence. I'd jump at the opportunity if it worked.
- bilegeek 6y agoThere is Orthokeratology, which physically deforms the cornea via a contact lens, and lasts about a day or two. But it isn't ideal, and can have bad outcomes.
- npongratz 6y agoA day or two if you're lucky. If you happen to have corneas like mine, you'll get about 9 hours before suffering a fast decline: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21546732 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21546732 No lasting bad effects for me, at least. I'm still glad I tried it.
- skulk 6y agoIsn't there a period of time during this decline where you can't wear your normal corrective lenses because they are too strong? That sounds horrible.
- npongratz 6y agoThat's correct, at least in my experience. I could have worked around the every-afternoon decline by carrying a number of glasses in -1.00 to -6.00 and switching among them as needed, or by wearing the ortho-k lenses, which I could tolerate with my eyes closed while I slept, but would have been intolerable while performing any normal activities. Either way, that completely negated my goal of being able to live corrective lens-free during my waking hours. The other thing that really bugged me was the fact that these lenses could not correct my vision across my entire dilated pupil, and that issue also got worse as the day went on. That resulted in terrible halos around light sources in high contrast situations, such as at night when driving home from work.
- ludwigvan 6y agoHas anyone here given this a try: https://gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-throw-away-your-glasses/ https://gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-thr... https://gettingstronger.org/2014/08/myopia-a-modern-yet-reversible-disease/ https://gettingstronger.org/2014/08/myopia-a-modern-yet-reve... It claims that myopia can be cured, just like muscles can be made stronger in a gym.
- antisthenes 6y agoIt's nonsense. I was recommended this as a child - any improvement was temporary, and at best this will slow down the progression of myopia very slightly, in childhood. Nothing beats sunlight and outdoor activity in childhood for reducing myopia, but if you already have it as an adult - you're stuck with it.
- adkadskhj 6y agoDoesn't this article suggest there's some truth to strengthening the eye to improve Myopia, though? While the "new glasses" could of course be snake oil - assuming they're not for discussion would suggest that the muscles can be strengthened/corrected and all we're discussing is an implementation detail. That's assuming these glasses actually work in this fashion, though. .. and that they work, of course.
- antisthenes 6y agoThe article can suggest whatever it wants. If it actually worked long-term, it would be a published paper on PubMed and ophthalmologists would be readily prescribing it to their patients. I'm not ruling out a temporary improvement in myopia from exercises. Sort of like squinting or putting eye drops in your eyes can temporarily make you less nearsighted. But if there are positive, long-term effects from simple, harmless exercise (spoiler alert - you can't change the shape of your eye permanently with exercise like you can with a muscle), it would be part of eye doctor's treatment plans everywhere. But it isn't, so it doesn't pass the smell test.
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- blue_box 6y agoShut up and take my money. This is the smart glasses that the world needs.
- Hraefn 6y agoFor those interested, there are a couple of treatments available in the U.S. to slow the progression of childhood myopia. MiSight[0] contacts and low-dose atropine[1]. [0] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-contact-lens-indicated-slow-progression-nearsightedness-children https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr... [1] https://www.aao.org/eyenet/article/how-to-use-low-dose-atropine-to-slow-myopic-progre https://www.aao.org/eyenet/article/how-to-use-low-dose-atrop...
- jdtang13 6y agoThe "myopia is purely genetic" zeitgeist has been continually shoved down all of our throats in the west. Meanwhile, studies from Taiwan, Japan, and Korea show that myopia truly has an environmental component to it, e.g. childhood eyestrain and video games. It's also undeniable that myopia manifests more in middle class workers than working class, which indicates some sort of systematic environmental component. Since the article is specifically about Japan and Asian markets, I must add this: One may argue that the discrepancy in mainstream scientific conclusions could simply be due to differences in genetics between East Asians and Europeans. This mainstream "myopia can't be cured/prevented" rhetoric has been extremely harmful for approximately 2 billion people on this planet.
- simlevesque 6y agoI have bad myopia (around -5) both my parents have it too and to me it has always been evident that it isn't purely genetic. I think I could willfuly downgrade my vision if I concentrated.
- mumblemumble 6y agoIn my family (n=basically_none), it seems that myopia correlates strongly with habits. The most bookish, indoors-y kids ended up in glasses - and the more so, the thicker the glasses - while folks who spent their childhoods running around outside tend to have 20/20 vision. Assuming such an effect really exists, I expect it would be very difficult to statistically distinguish from straight heredity. Kids' early childhood habits tend to reflect family culture.
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- afrojack123 6y agoIt doesn't take a genius to realize man never had myopia or vision problems until the recent 2 decades. Generalize this too any disease. If everybody is getting it(cancer,autism, ALS etc), its an environmental disease.
- u678u 6y agoBTW there was an interesting article on Myopia yesterday on how Covid lockdowns will harm children's eyesite. https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-and-eyesight-myopia-on-the-rise-during-lockdown/a-56301421 https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-and-eyesight-myopia-on-the-ri...
- timonoko 6y agoBTW: -2 shortsightness is the optimal. You can see your own hands and what you are doing and eating until the day you die. I happen to be those lucky few. On sunny days the iris is so small I can manage without glasses.
- phonebucket 6y agoI'm short-sighted. I'm more worried about blurry traffic than blurry food.
- pilsetnieks 6y ago-2 is not that blurry. You may not be able to reliably read a license plate at distance but you'll still see the (mildly blurry) car coming at you.
- jfk13 6y agoIt's not just about whether you can see there's an oncoming car. For example, if you can't read the road signs ahead until a few seconds later than someone with "normal" vision, your driving will be seriously affected due to lack of timely information, and the added mental burden of trying to compensate for this.
- Dylan16807 6y agoI'm struggling to think of a road sign that isn't either placed well in advance of when you need it, or something like a stop sign where blurriness doesn't matter. Just street names, I guess? Those are a pain to navigate by anyway. You often already want to be in a lane by the time you can read the sign. The proper the way to relieve that mental burden is to have a navigator or GPS.
- nrb 6y agoMy contacts are -1.75 with -0.75x148 astigmatism and I can't make out peoples faces unless I'm practically standing next to them. Nevermind trying to read a menu board at a restaurant counter or trying to find my glasses if I misplace them. Driving would be totally out of the question for me.
- dorfsmay 6y agoCorrecting? They mean temporarily cure... If this works, it's fascinating! One thing I have been wondering for a while, and I thought this what it was when I read the title, is, why can't we have zoom lenses with a camera turned inword to the retina applying autofocus algorithms? As I age, I need a different prescription for every 20 cm I push my laptop back, something like this would be very useful. Anybody knows what happened to this project https://www.core77.com/posts/12220/brilliant-water-based-eyeglasses-for-the-masses-no-optician-required-12220 https://www.core77.com/posts/12220/brilliant-water-based-eye... ?
- gcheong 6y agoIt's not clear what the current status is but this is the website for that project: http://cvdw.org http://cvdw.org . Last Facebook post was in 2018.
- rob74 6y agoThis headline is a classic example of "burying the lede". Er... glasses that correct myopia? Haven't those been around for, like, at least 600 years?
- JustSomeNobody 6y agoAlas, I'm cursed with mostly astigmatism.
- mattjaynes 6y agoAsk yourself, how much brighter is it outside than inside (assuming a sunny day vs a brightly lit office)? Before looking into this, I would have guessed 2X or 3X, but would you believe it's actually over 100X! I bet most people's guess would also be off by 1 or 2 orders of magnitude. Even outdoors in the shade, it is over 50X brighter than indoors. (For specific numbers and comparisons, see: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6656201/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6656201/ ) Apparently, our eyes adjust so quickly to the difference that we have a very poor sense of the magnitude of light change between indoors and outdoors. I bring this up because one of the largest factors in myopia development appears to be outdoor light exposure in childhood. Genetics are likely a factor too, but light exposure seems to have a huge effect: "The prevalence of myopia in 6- and 7-year-old children of Chinese ethnicity was significantly lower in Sydney (3.3%) than in Singapore (29.1%), while patterns of daily outdoor light exposure showed that children living in Singapore were exposed to significantly less daily outdoor light than Australian children." (from the same study linked above) The obvious takeaway for parents, schools, and governments: ensure your children have plenty of outdoor playtime. It will greatly reduce instances of myopia (not to mention the benefits from higher Vitamin D levels, exercise, etc).
- atotic 6y agoI've read this study a while ago, and I think it helped me correct my son's myopia. When my 5yo kid's eye check came back with "he'll need glasses next year", we started strict "hour+ outside play daily" policy. At his next checkup, he had normal vision. Dr was surprised.
- outworlder 6y agoI believe that's still under active research. If this is a factor, my money is more on "your eyes will be focusing more at infinity" rather then low light levels.
- midjji 6y agoFocusing on infinity more has been tested using glasses designed to force this, it was a popular theory for 60 years or so, and many opticians prescribed glasses which forced people to do this as a result. I cant find it atm, but the result according to a large metastudy was that it caused headaches, and nothing else of note.
- stevebmark 6y agoThis will absolutely not, under any circumstances, "correct" myopia. You can only slow its progression, with techniques like: - Pupil dilating eye drops - Wearing corrective lenses as little as possible - Wearing glasses with fogged edges/rims - Reducing the time you hold objects close to your face The major factor behind all of this is to reduce the over focusing of light on your retina and fovea. The more light that focuses back there, the more your eye is told to grow longer. Every parent should know this and how it works. And so should your ophthalmologist, most of which are clueless. You can't, in any way, undo this growth once it's happened. This is terrible reporting.
- unexpected 6y agoYou so sure about that? My myopia has gone from -5.50 to -4.00 over the years.
- cupofcoffee 6y agoWhat did you do?
- vasquez 6y agoIf you're nearing/above 40 this is likely age related farsightedness (presbyopia) counteracting your myopia. https://www.nvisioncenters.com/farsightedness/and-age/ https://www.nvisioncenters.com/farsightedness/and-age/
- stevebmark 6y agoYes, I'm sure.
- midjji 6y ago"It projects an image from the lens of the unit onto the wearer's retina to correct the refractive error that causes nearsightednes" so regular glasses then...
- treeman79 6y agoNeat. My prescription changes every couple of minutes. But along a predictable curve. I keep thinking about getting optometrist adjustable lenses hooking it up to motors to automatically shift the lenses. Mechanical is beyond me though.
- andai 6y agoI haven't heard about this, could you elaborate?
- treeman79 6y agohttps://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-conditions/s/sixth-nerve-palsy.html https://www.cedars-sinai.org/health-library/diseases-and-con... From IIH. Pressure in head changes constantly, which affects ability to control horizontal eye muscles. I still can, but I have to strain to an extremely painful degree. When at highest +24 od Prism glasses -1.5 left eye +1 right Eye. When normal, no prism, +1.5 & +2.5 It can go anywhere in-between.
- kazinator 6y agoOff on a complete tangent here, only remotely related. Yo, fellow four-eyed geeks. I noticed that when lying down and looking up in a room with a light source, with my glasses on, if there is a small droplet of water on the lens (say, due to having just cleaned the glasses and not wicked up every last drop), this droplet can bend the light in such a way that when it subsequently hits the cornea and pupa, a perfectly straight, parallel beam of light passes through the vitreous humor right to the retina. The consequence of this is that all the junk floating in your eye is rendered in "4K clarity" in a circle of light, regardless of whether it is next to the retina, or floating somewhere in the middle. Imperfections in your cornea or elsewhere are also rendered, making themselves evident.
- alliao 6y agook I've always wanted to map it out and keep track of them, I swear they come and go, so going to try this out later! If you can shed more details that'd be awesome! Does the droplet have to be dead centre??
- kazinator 6y agoThe droplet doesn't have to be dead centre. Basically you stare past the droplet and see the glint of light in it as a big blurry orb of light. That's the "spotlight", basically.. That's it. If you squint your eyes, and see relatively sharp shadows of your eyelashes impinging on the orb, it's working.
- jachee 6y agoHeh... my myopia is so severe that I get the effect just by taking off my glasses and looking at a point light source. Christmas trees look like psychedelic, technicolor schools of puffer fish, and I can clearly watch the intra-ocular "weather" as I move my head/eyes around.
- root_axis 6y agoDamn! Thought I was the only person who ever experienced this, it's cool that you decided to post this here. Anyway, I can actually do this with my glasses off as well. Lay on your back and stare up at the light with your eyes nearest to closed as possible but still letting in a little light, it takes some adjusting to get it into focus but you get the full 4k experience just as you describe. Thanks for sharing.
- thick 6y agoMaybe some of you will find this beneficial if you have slight vision issues. It’s anecdotal, I don’t have scientific backing here. It worked for me, and I think it’s harmless to try. What I’m about to describe is what I think is the Active Focus method. I’ve always had perfect vision but my dominant eye degraded slightly over the years so I looked into how to bring it back to full. No one in family wears glasses or anything like that, although the elderly use reading glasses of course. Practicing reading on both monitor and in front of a book with the good eye palmed and trying to shift the focus back and forth while gunning for more clarity for a longer period of time, it took me very little to get rid of the issue - I must have practiced probably 30 times of a few minutes each over the span of a few months, so maybe once every 2nd or 3rd day as I felt like it. I went from having a hard time reading the numbers and letters to very carefully observing the edges of fonts rendered by ClearType antialiasing on Windows. At first the eye muscles got strained from me forcing it to focus, but then it got better. Minor soreness and redness at first is nothing to be concerned about IMHO. I still practice but not as often, since I’ve trained the ability to focus at will which is really what active focus is about from my understanding - intentional focusing with enough speed. I’m not a big fan of EndMyopia but the subreddit has people claiming they fixed far worse problems than I have (if slight blurryness is even worthy being called a problem). I highly recommend Todd Becker’s presentation on Active Focus for anyone wanting a breakdown of the approach. Some people seem to have a hard time with being able to finely control where their focal plane is. It gets easier with practice is about all I can say. The full “method” that Todd Becker and EM recommend is to try to keep distance to whatever that you’re reading so that it’s just slightly out of focus, but I haven’t had that severe of a myopia. From time to time I read sites like HN from slightly further away than usual just to provide a bit of a challenge to the focus practice, but I think long term it probably isn’t healthy to try to read HN at normal font size from across the room.
- ComodoHacker 6y agoYou are talking about hyperopia (farsightedness), not myopia (nearsightedness) in your case, right?
- thick 6y ago
- JackPoach 6y agoAs a myopic person wearing glasses for 25+ years, I'd like independent verification of these claims. There are/were a number of similar devices that turned out to be a total dud.
- AltruisticGap2 6y agoOn a related note, I find it super interesting that people across many communities and forums report seeing eye sight improvements from daily use of VR headsets. Though it can take a while from those accounts I read, like average 1 hour a day for a year. In each case these people report not wearing glasses in the headset.
- pirisek453 6y agoInterestingly enough, an older comment mentioned a study in the 1980s observed that people in submarines develop myopia: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12064612 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12064612 so adults (possibly young adults) do get it