Japanese Researchers Create VR Game to Boost Eyesight

In today’s world of smartphones, gaming consoles, and computers, excessive screen time is common. Prolonged exposure can strain the eyes, as many experience after long gaming sessions or endless scrolling. Constant screen focus fatigues the ciliary muscles, which adjust the eye’s lens for focusing, potentially leading to near-sightedness. Surprisingly, a new solution might involve more gaming.

Researchers at Kwansei Gakuin University in Japan have developed a VR game designed to enhance players’ vision. While further studies are needed, this game shows promise for helping individuals with myopia improve their eyesight.

This straightforward target-shooting game, built in Unity for Meta Quest 2, features three lanes, each with a circular target on a pole. Players press the controller’s trigger to activate a virtual laser beam, highlighting a lane and its target to enter “aim” mode. To hit the target, players must move the controller’s stick in the direction shown by a small Landolt C—a black ring with a gap used in Japanese eye tests—at the target’s center.

The game exercises eye muscles by requiring players to shift focus between targets at varying distances and concentrate on the Landolt C to identify the gap’s position. After completing the game, players see an arcade-style results screen displaying hits, misses, combos, and any new high-score records, sparking competitive enthusiasm among some participants.

Over the six-week study, all participants showed improved vision. Those with severe myopia saw greater progress the more they played.

As the study involved only 10 young adults aged 22-36, larger-scale research is needed to confirm the game’s potential for treating near-sightedness. According to the Japanese research paper, the team plans additional experiments to assess the game’s effectiveness.