As mentioned in previous entries, I'm now following a new protocol guided by Doctor Tran of Vivid Vision. The prescription is to play the Bubbles game (and some other new game) for 30 minutes per day, five days a week while using plus one reading glasses.
I'd done this for around four times already. The first go around was a reminder of that game that I'd played a long time back but couldn't see any therapeutic value in. But after I gave it some time I realized what a brutal workout it is, mainly because the game makes my hypertropia very obvious, so I'm putting in a lot of work on correcting it.
The first time I could barely play the game for five minutes before the discomfort/strain became too much. The second time, I think it was fifteen minutes. The fourth time I was able to put in the entire 30 minutes. I took off yesterday. Today I was about to do it, but my computer wouldn't turn on. No nothing. No fans, no lights, just one sole power light on the motherboard so that you can power it on without the jumpers. Did some basic troubleshooting, thought it was the power supply, ran around the corner, picked up a new one, and tried again with the new power supply. Still won't work. There are only four components needed for the computer to power on. Power supply, motherboard, CPU, and memory. Not the power supply, unlikely the memory, since I already tried with one DIMM and trying a different slot. So I was forced to go out and get a new motherboard. Shit. Hopefully it's the motherboard and not the CPU preventing the thing from kicking on. Although that would be a good excuse for upgrading the computer. I need it for vision therapy!
As far as progress goes, I think that the new regimen is causing rapid progress. The hypertropia appears to have gone down substantially in just the few times that I'd done the vision therapy. It leads me to believe that when you're doing the right things under the right guidance, progress in vision therapy should be extremely quick. The reason I'd been doing vision therapy for over four years is because I am uneducated/didn't have the right guidance/didn't have the right technology. It looks like that's over. So we'll see.
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Getting Vivid Vision beta to work
During my Skype with James, the issue of stability of the Vivid Vision beta came up. I told James that the program would crash quite a lot, and that I'd have to reopen the game quite frequently. He said it was a result of the problematic Oculus SDK. But recently I've got things set up so that Vivid Vision is now very stable. Since I've had this configuration I've not had a single crash. Because the release of the commercial Oculus Rift is still potentially eight freaking months away, that means it makes sense to get the DK2 to go as far as it will go. That's another eight potential months of vision therapy on the DK2. Without further ado, here are the details of my setup.
Operating system: Windows 10 Professional (x64)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell Quad-Core 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W BX80646I74770 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked w/ACX Cooler 3GB GDDR5 384bit Dual-Link DVI-I DVI-D HDMI DP SLI Graphics Cards 03G-P4-2884-KR
Motherboard: Z87-GD65 GAMING (MS-7845) 1.0
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM
Operating system: Windows 10 Professional (x64)
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 Haswell Quad-Core 3.4GHz LGA 1150 84W BX80646I74770 Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics
GPU: EVGA GeForce GTX 780 Ti Superclocked w/ACX Cooler 3GB GDDR5 384bit Dual-Link DVI-I DVI-D HDMI DP SLI Graphics Cards 03G-P4-2884-KR
Motherboard: Z87-GD65 GAMING (MS-7845) 1.0
Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-1600C9D-16GXM
Oculus runtime: oculus_runtime_sdk_0.6.0.1_win
Vivid Vision: VividVision-v0.72-Win
nVidia drivers: 355.60-desktop-win10-64bit-international-whql
When it came time to upgrade to Windows 10, everyone in the VR community collectively crapped their pants because Oculus didn't have a ready compatible runtime. Luckily there was a workaround. When you try to install the 0.6.0.1, the installer says it fails. But it works. Just create a shortcut of OVRServer_x64 (in Program Files\Oculus\Service). On that shortcut, click properties, go to the compatibility tab, and check Windows 8 compatibility, and also check 'run as administrator'. Then turn off the Oculus Rift. Then run the shortcut that you created, then turn the Oculus Rift on, and then run Vivid Vision. What a pain in the ass. But it runs like a champ now. I'm sure that the new runtime works great (0.7.0.0-beta), and that's probably the way to go. But right now everything's working awesome for me in my current setup. So that's where I'm going to stay for a while until some driver upgrade breaks something, and then I have to mess with the thing again. Sigh... the joy of being an early adopter.
Here's the post that gave me the instructions on how to get the Oculus Rift to work with Windows 10.
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3f8g9d/oculus_dk2_windows_10_fix_it_works/
https://www.reddit.com/r/oculus/comments/3f8g9d/oculus_dk2_windows_10_fix_it_works/
Working with James and Tuan
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!
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!
Sunday, August 2, 2015
Quick update
It's been a while eh?
Things have been going pretty well. Space looks really good. Things look really big in my face, compared to before. I do seem to be noticing improvement just in perceptual changes. I also seem to know how to turn on the suppressing eye while playing space. It's an odd sensation, how I feel my muscles when I do this. My guess is that when I turn on the suppressing eye, it straightens itself out. But I don't know since I can't see my eyes. I'm guessing this is the case, because when I turn on that eye and concentrate, I can see the spacecraft quite clearly and this could only be the case if I were looking at the spacecraft dead-on with the fovea (only one since only one eye sees the spacecraft).
However, this is tricky because when I move the spacecraft around, the eye has to move around with it in order to keep the fovea on it. But that's the fundamental thing that I'm trying to train. I do feel pretty good about knowing what needs doing in order to progress and there's nothing else I need right now. Knowing what I now know, I should be able to progress quite a way.
Recently Tuan Tran joined the DIY group. He's a vision therapist who works with James Blaha on Vivid Vision. He saw my post and mentioned that I might try to keep that eye on as much as possible during the day, so that's something I've been thinking about quite a bit.
Things have been going pretty well. Space looks really good. Things look really big in my face, compared to before. I do seem to be noticing improvement just in perceptual changes. I also seem to know how to turn on the suppressing eye while playing space. It's an odd sensation, how I feel my muscles when I do this. My guess is that when I turn on the suppressing eye, it straightens itself out. But I don't know since I can't see my eyes. I'm guessing this is the case, because when I turn on that eye and concentrate, I can see the spacecraft quite clearly and this could only be the case if I were looking at the spacecraft dead-on with the fovea (only one since only one eye sees the spacecraft).
However, this is tricky because when I move the spacecraft around, the eye has to move around with it in order to keep the fovea on it. But that's the fundamental thing that I'm trying to train. I do feel pretty good about knowing what needs doing in order to progress and there's nothing else I need right now. Knowing what I now know, I should be able to progress quite a way.
Recently Tuan Tran joined the DIY group. He's a vision therapist who works with James Blaha on Vivid Vision. He saw my post and mentioned that I might try to keep that eye on as much as possible during the day, so that's something I've been thinking about quite a bit.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Getting more excited about the prospect of stereopsis
I think I'm getting better at Space, in Vivid Vision.
When I had a vision therapist, one of the things that she would say when doing vision therapy exercises is that I should try to relax my eyes and look 'soft'--or gaze softly. Does that make any sense? Weird that I immediately knew what she was talking about even though there's nothing obvious about the meaning of looking 'soft'.
But here's my attempt at explaining it. It's the opposite of looking 'hard'; relaxing the eyes, and trying to make the act of visual gleaning as passive as possible: trying to make the eyes like a window through which visual information passes.
I don't know why that thought came to me. I think it was because when I was playing Space, I was noticing the things I was looking at. I could see the rings and the asteroids with my left eye. I could also see the spacecraft with the right eye, but because of the suppression, it's somewhat tricky to get all of the detail simultaneously. So I sort of automatically probe for ways to get the information that I know is there, and that's where looking soft sort of spontaneously came to me. Just relaxing the eyes, and letting the information stream through.
Just earlier today I had a really good session of Vivid Vision. It looked better than ever before. Things look big! And in my face. My field of vision is getting giant. It's pretty amazing. It's really amazing to think about how much humans can see. Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising since so much of our brain is dedicated to visual processing.
I can't help but think that having stereoblindness (or being half blind, which is what it really is) must have a very substantial neurological consequences for those who have it. I've talked about this before, so I won't get too much into it now. But it is a major reason why I'm so invested in stereopsis recovery. It isn't just about the stereopsis. It's more about having hardware that works the way it's meant to work. There's every reason to think that a person who recovers stereopsis is going to have a better life than someone who doesn't, all other things being equal. Sure, the vision part is awesome, but it's all of the other things that are going to be affected by the improved vision. The second order effects. Although I admit that I'm pumped about the prospect of the subjective experience of stereopsis, it's the second order effects that I'm counting on. That's what I'm really after. Perhaps I'll some day beat my brother at Badminton.
When I had a vision therapist, one of the things that she would say when doing vision therapy exercises is that I should try to relax my eyes and look 'soft'--or gaze softly. Does that make any sense? Weird that I immediately knew what she was talking about even though there's nothing obvious about the meaning of looking 'soft'.
But here's my attempt at explaining it. It's the opposite of looking 'hard'; relaxing the eyes, and trying to make the act of visual gleaning as passive as possible: trying to make the eyes like a window through which visual information passes.
I don't know why that thought came to me. I think it was because when I was playing Space, I was noticing the things I was looking at. I could see the rings and the asteroids with my left eye. I could also see the spacecraft with the right eye, but because of the suppression, it's somewhat tricky to get all of the detail simultaneously. So I sort of automatically probe for ways to get the information that I know is there, and that's where looking soft sort of spontaneously came to me. Just relaxing the eyes, and letting the information stream through.
Just earlier today I had a really good session of Vivid Vision. It looked better than ever before. Things look big! And in my face. My field of vision is getting giant. It's pretty amazing. It's really amazing to think about how much humans can see. Perhaps it shouldn't be so surprising since so much of our brain is dedicated to visual processing.
I can't help but think that having stereoblindness (or being half blind, which is what it really is) must have a very substantial neurological consequences for those who have it. I've talked about this before, so I won't get too much into it now. But it is a major reason why I'm so invested in stereopsis recovery. It isn't just about the stereopsis. It's more about having hardware that works the way it's meant to work. There's every reason to think that a person who recovers stereopsis is going to have a better life than someone who doesn't, all other things being equal. Sure, the vision part is awesome, but it's all of the other things that are going to be affected by the improved vision. The second order effects. Although I admit that I'm pumped about the prospect of the subjective experience of stereopsis, it's the second order effects that I'm counting on. That's what I'm really after. Perhaps I'll some day beat my brother at Badminton.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Vivid Vision
I feel compelled to make an entry today because I had a particularly good vision day. I almost want to say that I'm beginning to experience fusion. Not quite there, but I'm beginning to understand why James Blaha renamed Diplopia to Vivid Vision.
Heh, well first of all, Diplopia is a bad thing. You don't want it. It's something that you want to fix. So naming the game Diplopia--a game whose purpose is partly about assuaging diplopia--is sort of like Imodium AD instead naming their product Diarrhea.
'What the... No! That's exactly what I don't want!'
Vivid Vision, on the other hand, is a very good way to describe how I see my vision changing. It's... just becoming more... vivid. It's useless using words to describe it. But it's like the stimulation is turned way up. I notice more, colors are brighter. And it has a lot to do with less suppression. I'm aware of what's going on in the lazy eye now. Its input is being noticed simultaneously, and it's all of this extra input that's causing me to use the word vivid.
Interestingly I think my recent progress has a lot to do with an update that James made to his software. For months I was stuck on version .62 beta (Diplopia), because all of the newer versions would crash on my machine.
About three week ago I gave the latest version a try (I had updated my graphics card's drivers and also the newest Oculus Rift runtime). When I tried it again, the game actually ran without crashing. Now, Diplopia *ahem* Vivid Vision is really vastly improved. Now I can appreciate all of the improvements James has made to the game.
The controls are much improved on Space. The sensitivity is much dialed down. The graphics are improved. There are some new game elements (hard to describe). I think the biggest improvement is the rendering of the spacecraft itself. It has these bright, bright thrusters, and the spacecraft has quite a lot more detail on itself. The spacecraft is only seen on the right eye. Everything else is seen on the left eye. Normally I want to sort of suppress the right eye, but because the spacecraft is so big and bright, it makes it much easier to notice input from both channels simultaneously.
It's funny to think that a simple software patch could make such a tremendous difference in the quality of my life. I know I've said this before, but in case you stumble upon this, Thank you, James!!
Heh, well first of all, Diplopia is a bad thing. You don't want it. It's something that you want to fix. So naming the game Diplopia--a game whose purpose is partly about assuaging diplopia--is sort of like Imodium AD instead naming their product Diarrhea.
'What the... No! That's exactly what I don't want!'
Vivid Vision, on the other hand, is a very good way to describe how I see my vision changing. It's... just becoming more... vivid. It's useless using words to describe it. But it's like the stimulation is turned way up. I notice more, colors are brighter. And it has a lot to do with less suppression. I'm aware of what's going on in the lazy eye now. Its input is being noticed simultaneously, and it's all of this extra input that's causing me to use the word vivid.
Interestingly I think my recent progress has a lot to do with an update that James made to his software. For months I was stuck on version .62 beta (Diplopia), because all of the newer versions would crash on my machine.
About three week ago I gave the latest version a try (I had updated my graphics card's drivers and also the newest Oculus Rift runtime). When I tried it again, the game actually ran without crashing. Now, Diplopia *ahem* Vivid Vision is really vastly improved. Now I can appreciate all of the improvements James has made to the game.
The controls are much improved on Space. The sensitivity is much dialed down. The graphics are improved. There are some new game elements (hard to describe). I think the biggest improvement is the rendering of the spacecraft itself. It has these bright, bright thrusters, and the spacecraft has quite a lot more detail on itself. The spacecraft is only seen on the right eye. Everything else is seen on the left eye. Normally I want to sort of suppress the right eye, but because the spacecraft is so big and bright, it makes it much easier to notice input from both channels simultaneously.
It's funny to think that a simple software patch could make such a tremendous difference in the quality of my life. I know I've said this before, but in case you stumble upon this, Thank you, James!!
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Still making decent progress
Yeah, it seems that I've had a decently productive month. I'm noticing quite a bit less suppression. Particularly with up close objects.
I've been sticking to my normal regimen which consists of this: about 5 minutes of standing on my head. I found a much easier way of doing it, which is against the wall and I use my meditation cushion for my head so it's not on bare linoleum. After I can't bear it any longer, I quit that. Then I strap on the electrodes to o1 and o2 and continue playing Diplopia. I've stopped playing the Breaker game, and have focused exclusively on Space. I do that for 20 minutes, and then I'm done.
I've noticed that in the past week in particular that Space looks quite a bit more stimulating. The asteroids are really getting into my face.
It's been almost a year since I started using Diplopia, so it's definitely taking more time to work its magic on me than it has for many others. There could be many reasons for that. I tend to think that I have a brain which is less plastic on average than others. I learn slower than average, but I also tend to not forget things once I've learned them. My brain is hard, which perhaps means that vision therapy is going to take more time for me, and it's going to require a higher level of stimulation. If this was true, it might explain why meditation has helped quite a lot. Meditation facilitates a higher level of brain function.
I'm sort of now just enjoying watching the process, not at all stressed about the outcome. Kind of like, 'Oh wow, I haven't seen/experienced that before. This is pretty cool.' Heh, perhaps not being so concerned with the outcome has a positive effect on my progress. That is a thing which I notice about life in general: being unconcerned with the outcome will very often result in a better outcome. This is probably most true with love and relationships, but I think it's generally true.
Anyway, I've been extremely busy with my new job and haven't been able to participate as much with the group (DIY Vision Therapy). But I do follow it. It looks like Benjamin is doing very well. I suggested that we do another Skype/Hangout and I'll post an update on his progress here as well.
Ciao per ora
I've been sticking to my normal regimen which consists of this: about 5 minutes of standing on my head. I found a much easier way of doing it, which is against the wall and I use my meditation cushion for my head so it's not on bare linoleum. After I can't bear it any longer, I quit that. Then I strap on the electrodes to o1 and o2 and continue playing Diplopia. I've stopped playing the Breaker game, and have focused exclusively on Space. I do that for 20 minutes, and then I'm done.
I've noticed that in the past week in particular that Space looks quite a bit more stimulating. The asteroids are really getting into my face.
It's been almost a year since I started using Diplopia, so it's definitely taking more time to work its magic on me than it has for many others. There could be many reasons for that. I tend to think that I have a brain which is less plastic on average than others. I learn slower than average, but I also tend to not forget things once I've learned them. My brain is hard, which perhaps means that vision therapy is going to take more time for me, and it's going to require a higher level of stimulation. If this was true, it might explain why meditation has helped quite a lot. Meditation facilitates a higher level of brain function.
I'm sort of now just enjoying watching the process, not at all stressed about the outcome. Kind of like, 'Oh wow, I haven't seen/experienced that before. This is pretty cool.' Heh, perhaps not being so concerned with the outcome has a positive effect on my progress. That is a thing which I notice about life in general: being unconcerned with the outcome will very often result in a better outcome. This is probably most true with love and relationships, but I think it's generally true.
Anyway, I've been extremely busy with my new job and haven't been able to participate as much with the group (DIY Vision Therapy). But I do follow it. It looks like Benjamin is doing very well. I suggested that we do another Skype/Hangout and I'll post an update on his progress here as well.
Ciao per ora
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