In 2017, Facebook began rolling out a series of new illustrations to accompany content throughout the site. Illustrations by Pablo Stanley, via humaaans design library. Illustrations are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The team also has a crowdfunding campaign to help continue the development of the new app.Image by Katharina Brenner. You can sign up to take part here if you have experience of wearing an eye patch or helping a child to wear one. The researchers have teamed up with the Southampton charity, Gift of Sight, to run a national survey on how game technology can improve patch-wearing. “The app also has a nurturing and goal setting scheme that gives children and their parents autonomy over the patching treatment.” By making eyepatch use a superpower, we expect that this becomes not just a fun element, but an opportunity for kids to shine. “ Amblios Club puts the kids in the centre of the experience. ![]() Vanissa Wanick, a games designer and Senior Lecturer at Winchester School of Art, said: They will encounter other animals and help Bob to maintain a nature reserve and recycle waste. Developers hope it will be available for iPhone users in the coming months.Ĭhildren who use the app can expect to play games with Bambu the panda and his robot friend Bob. “This will help children to form a more positive association with their patch and increase the effectiveness of their treatment.”Ī prototype of the app, called Amblios Club, is available to download on the Google Play Store. If they wear their patch properly the game responds by unlocking different levels or giving rewards. If it isn’t, the game prompts them to correct this by sending them encouraging messages. “By harnessing novel approaches from computational mathematics and artificial intelligence, we have enabled the app to sense if the user’s eye patch is being worn properly. Mathematician Joerg Fliege, a Professor of Operational Research at UoS, was part of the development team. Through complex programming, it uses the smartphone’s camera to check if the person playing is wearing their patch correctly and encourages them to do so within the game. The app consists of several different computer games designed by graduates of the University’s Winchester School of Art. The researchers have founded a spinout company, Nucleolus Software, to launch the app. “This can increase the effectiveness of occlusion therapy and relieve some of the pressure on parents to implement the treatment.” He added: “Evidence suggests that the development of immersive smartphone, tablet and computer games could offer a solution by making the child want to wear the patch for the first time. It requires a huge time investment and perseverance and is not much fun at all. “There’s a short window of time for treatment, as it has very limited success after the age of eight. “Consistency in wearing an eye patch is essential for treating amblyopia. However, intervention is often required to ensure children persist with the treatment, which has a success rate of just 50%.ĭr Jay Self is an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Southampton, and Consultant at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. This involves covering the unaffected eye for a set time – around three hours a day for six months – forcing the ‘lazy’ eye to work harder. Treatment aims to improve vision in the weaker eye through occlusion or ‘patching’ therapy. It affects around one in 50 children in the UK.Ī lazy eye is when the vision in one eye does not develop properly because it does not have a strong enough link to the brain. The medical term for a lazy eye is amblyopia. ![]() It uses a series of games to encourage children to build a positive association with their eye patch and wear it more often. Southampton researchers have developed an app to encourage greater use of eye patches in children with a common visual impairment.Įye patches are one of the most common treatment methods for a ‘lazy eye’, but many children struggle to wear them enough.Ī team of eye specialists, mathematicians and game designers at the University of Southampton and University Hospital Southampton have developed a new app to help.
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