Tiny Tiles Placed on Brain Surface

The device, a world-first designed to stimulate parts of the brain which are not functioning properly, forms part of the Gennaris bionic vision system developed by the Monash Vision Group’s Cortical Frontiers project. It’s made up of custom-made headgear complete with its own camera and wireless transmitter as well as a vision processor unit powered by software, which are connected to a set of tiny (9x9mm) electronic tiles which are at the core of the wireless system. These tiles are designed to be implanted on the brain’s surface at points where the transmission of information between the retina and the brain’s vision centre is compromised, and could therefore be responsible for the vision loss.

The system operates in a similar way to that of the visual system. The headgear’s video camera takes pictures of the scene around the wearer, and the pictures taken are then sent on to the vision processor, where the most important information is extracted, and transmitted as data to the complex circuitry in the electronic tiles. There it is processed again, this time in order to turn the data sent to it into a pattern of electrical pulses which are used to stimulate the brain through fine microelectrodes. 

New System Aimed at More than Vision

Reacting to this new development in eye and vision treatments and sight renewal, Australian master of optometry and vision therapy expert, Gary Rodney, welcomed this as a move forward in vision treatment that goes beyond focusing entirely on the eyes, and digs deeper into the treatment of vision problems in the processing part of the central visual system. He said this was especially welcome as it could perhaps bring about what’s often seen as the impossible, by returning sight to those without it.

System May Broaden its Usage to Other Areas

Rodney said vision therapy, operating on a different level, had already shown success with eye training in addressing issues which might be seen as unrelated to vision, such as the inability of a child with cerebral palsy to get out of her wheelchair and stand alone, which was accomplished by addressing an eye-tracking problem with vision therapy.

Already the Gennaris researchers have indicated the bionic system’s usage may ultimately not be restricted to correcting blindness, but also for treating those suffering from other neurological conditions which are currently considered hard to treat, or untreatable, such a limb paralysis, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, depression, and the restoration of other vital senses.

For more information on vision therapy, vision testing and other eye conditions, or to make an appointment, visit the Smart Vision website: Optometrists Sydney: Optometry Services For Children and Adults | Smart Vision; for specific information about Myopia treatment and prevention visit Myopia Prevention: Solutions, Control And Treatment In Sydney; and for detailed information about Myopia Treatment visit Orthokeratology In Sydney: The Non Surgical Alternative.

To book an appointment for a thorough eye check-up, click here or Call the Bondi clinic on (02) 9365 5047 or the Mosman clinic on (02) 9969 1600.

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If you google Virtual Reality and Vision Therapy you get tonnes of research, videos, publications, media links and case studies. If you want to know specifically about Vivid Vision VR training their website (seevividly.com) has heaps of links and data, as does our Smart Vision Optometry website.

I’m not writing this blog to give you this information though. Put simply, we wouldn’t have bought and used the system (successfully might I add) if there wasn’t a scientific and evidence-based foundation to it. Instead, I’m going to tell you the story of our first encounter with VR in the Vision Therapy room and how we decided Vivid Vision was going to be a good fit for Thompson Larter, Smart Vision Optometrists.

A few years ago we were approached by the Vivid Vision team. They had a VR headset, a computer and a lot of big promises. They said that we could treat strabismus (eye turn), fix amblyopia (lazy eye) and pretty much cure convergence insufficiency (poor eye teaming up close). They showed us the games and impressed us with the technology. But I had a request…well a demand really: prove it works.

I asked one of my most challenging patients into the office. 14-year-old Abigail had never seen the world in 3D and while we had been making gains in Vision Therapy, I desperately wanted to do better for her. I told the Vivid Vision team that if they could show me it work on her we would buy it. A big statement considering I don’t really own the company or pay the bills but lucky my bosses trust me eh?

Tuan Tran, chief optometrist and founder of Vivid Vision, never gave my request a second thought. You see in 2014 James Blaha (now Vivid Vision CEO) had a very big goal to correct his own strabismus and amblyopia, he had programmer Manish Gupta to help him but he needed someone with eye care expertise. These three men created this program and then travelled the world literally watching it work for everyone that tried it. So what I was asking really didn’t faze him in the slightest.

Abigail used the system for 10 minutes. Tuan fitted the head set to her, we all laughed at her reaction to her robotic hands and she dodged a bunch of meteors flying at her in space. 10 minutes was all it took. When Abigail came out of the VR headset I distinctly remember her reaching out and touching the chair in front of her, and then the table, feeling the sides and backs of them. Then she looked at her mum and started crying. She was seeing in 3D for the first time in her entire life. She was crying, mum was crying, and I’m not going to lie Gary and I were feeling pretty emotional too.

I’ll never forget that day. As a Vision Therapist I become so invested in my patient’s lives and well being. I love helping them and I love watching them succeed. Abigail was the first of many patients that I have been able to help using Virtual Reality combined with our unique in-office Vision Therapy programs and I am thankful every day to the Vivid Vision team!

WHAT IS SCREEN TIME DOING TO YOUR EYES?

If you’re reading this on a screen, there’s a good chance your eyes haven’t had a break in hours. Australians spend on average 10 hours a day using electronic gadgets. While TV time is slightly declining, new platforms have come into play and the portability of smartphones have turned them into everything from flashlights to credit cards to health monitors. If you use your smartphone as an alarm clock, your eyes look at a digital device the second they open.

Just how much strain does technology put on our eyes? A lot. Headaches, sore eyes, blurry vision and increased sensitivity to light are all signs of what we call computer eye strain or computer vision syndrome. Unlike words printed on a page, electronic characters are made up of pixels and have blurred edges. This makes it more difficult for the eyes to maintain focus. Unconsciously, the eyes repeatedly attempt to rest by shifting their focus to an area behind the screen. This constant switch between screen and relaxation point causes the eyes to feel fatigued very quickly and may lead to visual deterioration in the long run. Another factor is the impact of screen time on blinking. When you look into a screen for any amount of time, you blink around three times less than usual, which can result in dry and irritated eyes.

And that’s not all – our eyes are also exposed to increased amounts of blue light. Blue light is emitted by the sun and artificial light sources, including digital screens such as your smartphone, tablet and computer. Blue light is beneficial to our eyes in moderation as it is necessary for regulation of the sleep/wake cycles, mood and cognitive performances, but it can also be the cause of premature eye ageing. Overexposure to blue light can damage the retina and potentially increase the risk of age-related macular degeneration.

So how can you reduce the impact of eye strain symptoms? There are a few steps you can take to perform more comfortably while preserving your vision, including adjusting light exposure and adhering to the ‘20-20-20’ rule: every 20 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet (6 metres) away (see more on our website). However, it may not just be screen time hurting your eyes, but the lack of proper glasses while looking at the screen.

Today, there are anti-fatigue lenses that use breakthrough technology to give clear sight to a longer focal range, which ultimately is better for your eyes than using a prescription that is too strong. These lenses offer all the benefits of single vision lenses, but encourage a more comfortable range of sight for computer users. This means you can use devices looking through the correct prescription rather than through your reading prescription, which will be too strong for those more intermediate requirements. As a result, your glasses are more versatile and functional.

These anti-fatigue lenses, coupled with anti-reflection coatings, help prevent long-term damage to your eyes. By selectively filtering harmful blue light emitted by digital screens, these lenses block out the bad and let in the good, improving contrast on your screen regardless of its brightness. 

Now, has it been 20 minutes since you started reading? Don’t forget to look away.

MAKING THE WORLD A MORE COLOURFUL PLACE

When my son was around 4 or 5 years old we discovered he was colour deficient. Yes, a little embarrassing not to have found it out earlier but hey, I thought he was pulling my leg not knowing his colours… how wrong I was. I am still not aware of any colour blindness in my family other than Hamish, but there you go, he is red-green colour deficient and I gave him that gene!

Colour deficiency or colour blindness can be mildly irritating or at the other end of the spectrum, can affect your career choices, impact your learning and be a hazard to your safety. It can make a simple thing – like coordinating clothes – a challenge, becoming an electrician or pilot impossible, or simply colouring in a source of frustration for the average 6-year-old.

Around 8% of men of European descent have the most common form of colour deficiency (red-green colour blindness) and about 3% of African or Asian men. Conversely, only around 0.5% of women are colour deficient, with a much higher percentage carrying the gene for colour deficiency even though they, in fact, have normal colour vision.

There are two types of cells which regulate colour vision – the rods and cones. There are red, green and blue cones to detect colour and rods to detect light and dark. The majority of the colour deficient population is red-green colour deficient, followed by blue-yellow and lastly a small percentage is completely colour blind. Interestingly, the population of blue-yellow colour deficiency is equally split in gender, but still only amounts to 1 in 10,000 people.

So, all that said, it still doesn’t help knowing you don’t see things the way everyone else does…but just imagine if you could!

Very recently, technology has made advancements in treatment options for colour deficient individuals, offering us prescription and non-prescription lenses that give the wearer the ability to discern the difference between colours.

If you think your child might have a problem with colour differentiation, come in for a chat or an eye test. Here at Smart Vision Optometry we look forward to making your world a brighter, more colourful place.

IS TECHNOLOGY DESTROYING OUR KIDS’ EYES?

However, this doesn’t mean to say it is all bad. The advantage is that this type of technology can be the window to the world. Any information that we want to source on virtually any topic is available at our fingertips. This is not to mention social contacts and games along with a myriad of other hobbies and interests that the Internet provides us with.

The disadvantages, though, are what startle me as a Behavioural Optometrist. That is, the fact that our world’s population is becoming progressively shortsighted. Myopia – or shortsightedness – is the optical condition requiring glasses or some sort of optical correction in order to see clearly in the distance. A huge amount of research is starting to occur surrounding this condition, due to its massive increase in the population in recent times.

A study carried out in Taiwan, in 2012, showed that a simple increase of time spent throughout the day on outdoor activities had a significant effect on myopia onset and myopic shift [1]. Did you know that in Taiwan, children under the age of 2 are banned from using any electronic devices? Parents who allow children to use iPads and smartphones face fines. Children under the age of 18 are only allowed devices for a ‘reasonable’ length of time. Parents found guilty of allowing this excessive electronic use are fined US$1,500 [2].

So, what do we know so far? We know that myopia can come about as a result of genetic or inherited tendencies (but we don’t need to have this tendency to become shortsighted). We know that myopia can occur as a result of eye strain at the reading distance (of which you may not even notice). We also know that prolonged concentrated attendance at the reading distance and less daily outdoor activities in natural sunlight are significant factors contributing to myopia.

Myopia develops faster when it develops in children of younger ages [3]. Early onset of myopia in children is associated with high myopia in adult life. High myopia is a significant public health problem because of its association with increased risk of several ocular diseases including cataract, glaucoma, retinal detachment, myopic retinal degeneration, visual impairment and blindness. I repeat: this is a scary thought!

A large part of my day is spent preventing, minimising and stopping myopia in children. The following lists some of the visual habits that we have developed based on evidence-based research to assist in controlling the risk of myopia progression in children and adults:

• Always wear your prescription reading glasses when viewing anything within your arm’s length or closer. This includes iPhones, iPads, Gameboys and other devices.

• Viewing distance (the distance between your eyes and the screen or book) should never be closer than the distance from your elbow to your fist when your fist is placed on your chin.

• Ensure good lighting when reading, using the computer and watching TV. Never do it in a dark room.

• For reading, have two light sources – a room light and a direct light on the page or task.

• After every page or 5 minutes looking at the screen, look out a window and defocus.

• Get up and do something else every 15 minutes for a child and every 30 minutes for a teenager.

• In an ideal world, spend equal amounts of time outdoors (using peripheral vision) and indoors (using central vision). Sports such as netball and soccer are great for promoting this balance.

• Read globally. When reading and using the computer, try to look for “less detail”. Be aware of everything else peripherally around the book.

• Minimise or eliminate iPhone and iPad use completely.

• Complete your maintenance vision therapy where prescribed by your Behavioural Optometrist.

[1] Wu, P. C et. Al (2012). Outdoor activity during class recess reduces myopia onset and progression in school children. American Academy of Ophthalmology. 11: 1080-84.

[2] The Straits Times, January 28th 2015.

[3] Gwiazda, J. et al. (2007). Factors associated with high myopia after seven years of follow up in the correction of myopia evaluation trial. Opthalmic Epidemiol. 14:230-7.