Something pretty interesting has happened. It's no secret for people who read this blog that I am a deep admirer of James Blaha, his work, and the work of others at Vivid Vision. James and I had bumped into each other a few times via Reddit discussions about the Oculus Rift and the therapeutic potential for VR in vision rehabilitation.
Well, this time he responded to a post where I talked briefly about my experience with Vivid Vision and he was curious to know more so we arranged to Skype. We talked about a variety of different things, from my vision to his vision, from how the software has changed over time, to how people are responding to the software.
When I asked him about that, he mentioned that it seems that it's those who have mild to no strabismus who respond best to the software. However, he mentioned that he's working on new games which are expressly for taking care of the problem of strabismus--and that maybe I would be interested in testing out this software which is still being developed and not yet been tested on anyone. Having tried just about every vision therapy imaginable with not a whole lot of success, I jumped at the opportunity. He suggested that I talk with Tuan (Tuan Tran is the vision therapist at Vivid Vision--partners with James) to discuss my particular vision situation and move from there. If it looks like I'm a good fit, I'll be given a copy of the alpha.
So we ended the Skype conversation and then I did a Skype session with Tuan the next day. We talked about my particular situation, and he said that he thinks he knows the direction that we should go in. He suggested using 1+ reading glasses when looking at objects up close and during vision therapy workouts, doing the Bubbles game in Vivid Vision (a game that I hadn't yet been played), and doing it for 30 minutes per day, five days a week. The Bubbles game is already available in Vivid Vision, but the new game will be made available in a new version of Vivid Vision. When James et al. (I imagine he's not developing solo? Didn't think to ask.) finish their copy, I will receive a link in an email to download it.
What took my by surprise is that Tuan said that after a two weeks he'd like to do another Skype session to check up, and to send him a message if I have any a-ha moments. These guys are amazing. They're doing me a huge favor. Hopefully I can at least partly repay the favor by providing them with valuable information and feedback. Amazing dudes. Great honor to be working with them, and being sort of under their wing. Sort of feels unreal. If you're reading this, thank you so much, gents!
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