Delaze

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Delaze is a virtual reality app that treats amblyopia (lazy eye) by encouraging binocular vision.

Using Google Cardboard, the app delivers treatment that was previously expensive and unavailable to the public.

Historically, lazy eye has only been treatable in children from ages 3-12 through the extended use of eye patches. There were no treatments available to adults, and the eye patch method sometimes didn't even work for children.

A few years ago, research began on treating lazy eye with Virtual Reality. These novel methods were amazingly effective - they worked on adults and worked much better on kids. One study said 10-60 hours of the Virtual Reality treatment was as good as or better than 200-400 hours of the eye patch method.

This treatment is implemented with a Tetris-like game. Fallen block are in high contrast in one eye and in low contrast in the other, and the opposite contrast is given to the falling blocks. The brain will combine these two images when viewing in a Google Cardboard VR Headset, unconsciously forcing you to use binocular vision to place the blocks. Stereopsis recovery will eventually occur from the use of binocular vision over time.

Delaze started at the MHacks IV Hackathon, with partners @raphaelrk (senior at Mundelein High School) and @qwuke (freshman at Wayne State University) teaming up to make something worthwhile.