From: hlr@well.sf.ca.us (Howard Rheingold)
Subject: HMD question: help with lazy eye?
Date: 12 Feb 90 19:02:50 GMT
Message-ID: <16115@well.sf.ca.us>



I have a lazy eye -- my right eye does not track my left eye when I
look at distant objects (the left is dominant, I tend to ignore the
input from the right). They track OK when I look at things within a
few feet.  I had surgery to frob the muscles in one eye but it did not
correct the problem and I'm not too thrilled with the prospect of
going under the knife again. Before the surgery, I had some therapy
for a while that involved excercizes to improve the muscles, but they
didn't help, because they were deathly boring, and I didn't do them
nearly as much as I should have.

Can a head mount display compensate for the lazy eye, by shifting the
image in one eye enough so that it does not have to turn as much to
make the images line up? If the images are close enough together (i.e.
if I'm looking at something close up in real life) my eyes track
without me thinking about it. If I'm watching an object move away from
me, at some point my right eye will stop tracking it and it will pop
into monoscopic (I will start ignoring my right eye). I am wondering
if I can get stereo vision at a (virtual) distance, using a head mount
display, in spite of the lazy eye, and even have the software train
the lazy eye by gently and gradually separating the images over time,
once my eyes are tracking. I think the problem is that those muscles
don't get excercized in the right way, and maybe a head mount display
could be programmed to do that, maybe even with games that would help
excercise the muscles. Any ideas?

I am extemely interested in working with virtual reality, and I would love
to use a head mount display, except that my 3-D perception is terrible. 
It would be wonderful if a HMD could help me with my eye problem,
rather than my eye problem being a hinderance with a HMD.

        -Don