5 ms·

It looks like the article doesn't have any details on how this works, anybody care to speculate on a potential mechanism here?

sedatk 6y ago
From 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 ago
  How does this actually help treat nearsightedness when not wearing it? Does it change the shape of the eye ball?
  - throwaway314158 6y ago
    Since 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 ago
    It 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 ago
      Nitpicking, 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 ago
        Orthokeratology does both in developing children, according to a couple studies referred to in their link.
  - mmcconnell1618 6y ago
    No 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 ago
      it'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 ago
    It'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 ago
      It'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 ago
        Yeah, 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 ago
      So wear slightly weaker glasses? Yep.
      - google234123 6y ago
        I don't think this has been conclusively demonstrated yet.
        benibela 6y ago
        There was one famous study that discovered wearing weaker glasses made myopia worse, and then everyone was too afraid to make further studies
misterbwong 6y ago
More 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 ago
  Key words: "reduce the progression". Which means that marketing this as a cure is a complete fraud.
  - Method-X 6y ago
    Perhaps if they are given to children, it would result in them permanently developing 20/20 vision.
    - TylerE 6y ago
      20/29 isn’t some perfection. It’s merely typical. Many people with good eyes can see quite a bit better than that.
  - gcheong 6y ago
    Maybe 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.
- 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
WORLD_ENDS_SOON 6y ago
Completely 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 ago
It doesn't work, this is terrible reporting.
dangjc 6y ago
This 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 ago
  this 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 ago
    Vision 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 ago
      snap. dame paper, different links.
  - dangjc 6y ago
    The 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 ago
    So, 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...

sedatk 6y ago

From 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 ago
How does this actually help treat nearsightedness when not wearing it? Does it change the shape of the eye ball?
- throwaway314158 6y ago
  Since 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 ago
  It 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 ago
    Nitpicking, 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 ago
      Orthokeratology does both in developing children, according to a couple studies referred to in their link.
- mmcconnell1618 6y ago
  No 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 ago
    it'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 ago
  It'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 ago
    It'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 ago
      Yeah, 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 ago
    So wear slightly weaker glasses? Yep.
    - google234123 6y ago
      I don't think this has been conclusively demonstrated yet.
      - benibela 6y ago
        There was one famous study that discovered wearing weaker glasses made myopia worse, and then everyone was too afraid to make further studies

misterbwong 6y ago

More 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 ago
Key words: "reduce the progression". Which means that marketing this as a cure is a complete fraud.
- Method-X 6y ago
  Perhaps if they are given to children, it would result in them permanently developing 20/20 vision.
  - TylerE 6y ago
    20/29 isn’t some perfection. It’s merely typical. Many people with good eyes can see quite a bit better than that.
- gcheong 6y ago
  Maybe 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.
6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

WORLD_ENDS_SOON 6y ago

Completely 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 ago

It doesn't work, this is terrible reporting.

dangjc 6y ago

This 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 ago
this 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 ago
  Vision 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 ago
    snap. dame paper, different links.
- dangjc 6y ago
  The 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 ago
  So, 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...