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10 Best VR (Virtual Reality) Apps for Strabismus and Lazy Eye
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Feb 22, 2023
Are you ready? I've been using my Oculus Quest 2 for over a year now (and I had the Quest before that) and I have tried a ton of different games. These are my favorite games and apps that I use for vision therapy to help with my strabismus and amblyopia (lazy eye). If you don't have the quest yet, get one over here: https://www.oculus.com/referrals/link/143daniels/ Use my referral code for $30 of App Store credit! Equal Eyes: Specialized strabismus/amblyopia treatment, no subscription or doctor needed. Mention Melissa Daniels or code MDVR for a 10% refund after you activate your purchase. https://avalonweb.com.au/demo/ Vivid Vision: Specialized strabismus/amblyopia treatment available only through an optometrist. Learn more: https://strabismussolutions.com/an-honest-review-of-vivid-vision-a-strabismics-perspective/ Optics Trainer: Specialized strabismus/amblyopia treatment available only through an optometrist. Learn more https://strabismussolutions.com/optics-trainer-virtual-reality-home-program-review/ Gravity Sketch: Free, Paint in 3D https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/1587090851394426/ Nature Treks: $9.99 Explore a magical 3D world https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2616537008386430/ Beat Saber: $29.99 Use Light sabers to break blocks to the beat https://www.oculus.com/experiences/quest/2448060205267927/
View Video Transcript
0:00
hi my name is Melissa Daniels and I have strip business also known as lazy eye
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now strip business is when your eyes are not pointing in the same direction
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that's why it gets the nickname of lazy eye but it just means that your eyes are
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not working together and so over the last four years I've done hours and hours
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of vision therapy different exercises and even had a surgery to help my eyes
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get to the point where they're working together and looking straight. And one of my favorite
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exercises to do is on virtual reality. Now, if you aren't sure where you're at, if you have
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strabismus or what's going on, go to learn.strabismusolutions.com. And I have several
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free resources there that can help you get started. You can also schedule a consult with me
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You can buy my course. So much information over there. That's learn.strabismusolutions.com
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Now in this video I want to go through some of my favorite virtual reality exercises and
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games that I like to do that have helped me so much on my journey
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So virtual reality is basically like a video game computer that you put on your face and
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you've got these remote controls and there are so many different types of games and apps
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that you can use and they can just be fun. Lots of people use it just for fun
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but if you are using it to help with Strapismus, there is so much that can be done through virtual reality
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So I'm gonna go through my 10 favorite apps that I have used on the Oculus
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Now, note, if you're gonna go buy an Oculus, use my referral code and we both get $30 to the app store
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because the games can be kind of expensive. And so if you do that, you can get $30 just to get started
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and buy your first few games. So I'll put that link in the description. Okay, so in no particular order, I did not rank these from best to worst at any rate
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because for each person in your diagnosis, each one's going to be a little bit different
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like whether it's great or terrible, right? Okay, so first I've got to mention the vision therapy apps for the Oculus
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You've got two that, you've got Vivid Vision and Optics Trainer. I have full videos about those that you can watch that go through like every single detail of those apps
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they are subscription apps that you get through your optometrist so you can't just go into the
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app store and download vivid vision or optics trainer you have to actually go to your optometrist
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you have to do like a full vision therapy um like program and then you can get that onto your
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oculus so those are a little bit different they are phenomenal great graphics amazing exercises i
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I made huge progress with both of them. So they are fantastic apps, just not accessible to everybody
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unless you are able to go to vision therapy. So watch those videos on
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if you want to know more about Vivid Vision or Optics Trainer. And then the next eight are all apps
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that you can buy from the app store or almost but you don need a subscription or a doctor permission for any of these apps Okay so the next app I want to talk to you about is Equal Eyes
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This is an app developed by somebody named Mark from Australia who has strabismus
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He wasn't able to, there's no vision therapy close to him. So he decided, he's a software engineer, he decided to design an app to help him with his strabismus
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So it's really cool app. You're able to change the settings so that what each eye is seeing is different
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So it can accommodate for an outward turn, inward turn, up, down, or a cyclotorsion type turn
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So it's really neat. You can make all those adjustments in the settings
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so that when you go to the different games within the app, you can, it'll adjust for that
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and make it easier if you have an eye turn. So it's got the Brock string, it's got a coit
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It's got a bubble popping that different depths and he's so awesome
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He takes suggestions. So I can send him an email and say, hey, can you add this
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Can you do this? And he can. And so it's just gonna get better and better
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Such a cool app. I absolutely love it. All the controllers are in the patient's hand
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Yes, if it gets into the hands of the wrong person, like somebody could, I don't know, get double vision
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I'm sure that, you know, you should do it with your doctor's approval
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and all of that disclaimer or whatnot. But it's super cool app
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You can get that over at learn.strabismissolutions.com. You'll see a link for his app there
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Or you can go to his website. I will link it below. It's Avalon
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And if you mention me, you will get an extra 10% off
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which is fantastic. Or use the discount code MDVR. Okay, so Equalize, super cool
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It is the only app I know of that has vision therapy exercises
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that you can adjust that is not bought through an optometrist. So there's nothing else that I know of like it
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If you know of something, put it in the comments. I'd love to know about it. What Mark is doing is so cool
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It's still growing. It's still becoming. It's going to get better and better over time
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Okay, the next app that I have and use is Gravity Sketch
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Now, I've talked a lot about Gravity Sketch. I've done a whole video about it. it's basically like paint that you can do in 3D. So you can draw and create in a 3D environment
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Really, really cool concept as you're learning to go from 2D to 3D to be able to interact in that
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environment and to create. So super neat app and it's free, which is fantastic. A lot of these apps
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are going to be between 10 and $30 and the therapeutic apps are going to be more like 150
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to $200 or a monthly fee. But it is an investment for sure. Okay, the next one. So that's gravity
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sketch paint in 3d. Amazing. Okay, next nature treks VR. I just discovered this one. It could be
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my favorite. They're all my favorite. But you go in and they've got a bunch of different environments
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So one is Africa and they got like lions and tigers and maybe not lions tigers like giraffes and zebras and elephants walking around so you just in this like 3d environment right this isn a game at all um
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you're just there what you can do is you can like plant trees you can add butterflies you can change
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the time of day you can change the weather and you can walk all around and move within the
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environment. This is really, really powerful for those of us who, again, are learning to see in 3D
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When you put on this headset, it's so much easier to see 3D. In the real world, we're so used to
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seeing with only one eye at a time, and so things become more flat. But in virtual reality, it's so
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much easier for your brain to combine those images from your eyes and make it 3D. And as you practice
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that in the VR world it's easier to apply it into the regular world. It's definitely been true for me
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and a lot of other people. So in this app it's more of an exploring app. My favorite features and how
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it makes it on this list there's a couple where it's winter and you can make it so that it's
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snowing and if you've read Sue Berry's book about um called Fixing My Gaze she talks about the
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incredible time that she saw snow for the first time in 3d and it really is
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just breathtaking and amazing and you kind of get that experience in VR by
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doing that setting in the nature checks VR app so there's so many different
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things you can get the birds that's my first experience was watching flocks of birds you can get butterflies and birds flying around in that app and like the
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of flowing grass and trees and all of it is just really cool to interact with
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Highly recommend. Next is a more fun game. They kind of go together
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So we've got Beat Saber. Everybody knows about Beat Saber. You basically have a light saber in each hand
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and you're trying to hit the blocks to the beat of the music with the light sabers
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And they might be pointing different directions. It's really fun, so great
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You can engage your peripheral, which is super important. And it's just really entertaining
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So I love Beat Saber. Everyone usually who has VR has Beat Saber
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But another one I discovered with a similar feel to Beat Saber is called Les Mills Body Combat
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I wanna make sure I get that right. Les Mills Body Combat. And it's a similar idea
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You've got icons floating towards you that you have to do different things for
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But this time it's boxing. So you might have to punch like a regular punch
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or one of these guys or these guys, or like a knee
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Anyways, all sorts of different things. I like this better beat saber
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It's kind of a similar idea, but you have a sword, right? So there's like a distance between your hand
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and what you're hitting. In this Les Mills body combat, you actually are making contact with the target
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and you can sense and feel if you are extending your arm the right amount
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And so you're having to work that depth perception in a much more like fine tuned way
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and hitting the center So you really have to be engaged while keeping your peripheral open I love it I actually prefer it to Beat Saber as far as you know games that help with vision therapy
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I prefer this one. Beat Saber is maybe a little bit more fun and less tiring. Holy cow, it's a
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crazy workout, this Les Mills combat one. It is wild, but definitely amazing for working that
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depth perception and trying to get that timing right and getting the feel right. Okay, another
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one it's really cool it's similar to the nature treks um it's called wander and you get to choose
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different places literally all over the world so many cool places where you can go and they
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have set it up so that you can look around in the environment it like the wonders of the world and
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like beautiful hiking trails or wherever you can imagine there is a place where you can go visit it
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in virtual reality and experience that. And that's just again, like you're going in
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you're trying to open your peripheral and see the depth in the space and practice that in this virtual environment
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It's really powerful. Wander is not too expensive. I feel like it's only like $5 or something
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So it's another fun one. I would get nature tricks before Wander
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but I like having both. They're both really good apps. Next is Acron
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Acron is a game where you, one person is wearing the headset and they are a tree that is like throwing stuff
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And then you can play with up to eight other people on phones that have the app
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And they're like little squirrels trying to steal acorns from the tree. So it's a game really good for kids
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And just again, you're working that depth perception. Really, really good experience
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It's really good for just interacting in that 3D environment. And then last, I love to play tennis
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and they just barely came out with a tennis app where you're actually playing tennis with somebody
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It's really fun, great for working on your timing, making contact, keeping your eye on the ball
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Sometimes when I'm working on that with another person and actually playing real tennis
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it can be kind of embarrassing as I'm missing the ball or whatnot. And so it's kind of nice to have a place
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where I can just practice really focusing on tracking the ball and just like the depth perception
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key. So those are my 10 apps that I use the most frequently that I have loved. All of them, I have
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other games that my kids play that are just fun games. Love those too. These are the ones that I
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use with the intention of strengthening my eyes, making my strabismus better, getting my depth
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perception better, my alignment better, all of those things, these apps are the ones that I use
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So I will leave links for all of them in the description in case you didn't get to write
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them down. Don't forget to head over to learn.strabismissolutions.com for tons of resources
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that can help you with your lazy eye or strabismus. And I will see you in the next video
#Augmented & Virtual Reality
#Computer & Video Games
#Eye Exams & Optometry
#Eyeglasses & Contacts
#Laser Vision Correction
#Vision Care