Here's a $20 application for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming device (which costs about $130). It's called Flash Focus and it is supposed to improve your vision. You can get an idea of the various exercises--the web site has flash simulations of the games.
The software was developed according to theories due to Hisao Ishigaki of the Aichi Institute of Technology. Comments on Wikipedia seem to suggest that reviewers didn't think much of its ability to improve vision. They compared it unfavourably to Nintendo's earlier Brain Age.
Two of the games (Baseball and Table Tennis) are probably more fun than the psychologically motivated practice tasks. But would someone not be better off training on a Wii? I think that there are some research issues worth exploring here.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Monday, November 12, 2007
The Star
Jing and her research were profiled in The Toronto Star last week. A nice article and just in time for her 25th birthday!!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Visit to McMaster
We had a very interesting visit to McMaster on Friday. We were hosted by Daphne Maurer and Terri Lewis who are conducting video gaming training studies with amblyopes. They hope to be able to replace some of the current tedious training tasks to improve vision in adult amblyopes with more interesting and engaging video games that can be played at home, rather than have the patient come to a clinic or lab.
We also visited Judy Shedden's lab and had a very enjoyable discussion with Judy and Scott Watter and some of their students (Jim, Patrick, and Michelle). They have several experiments in progress, or planned, and it will be interesting to see how they turn out. Judy is an expert in ERP methods and has started to look at the differences between gamers and non-gamers using that tool. Then we toured Hong-Jin Sun's lab and met with his group who are doing work on spatial cognition. One of their lines of research uses a DriveSafety driving simulator and they can measure UFOV during the driving task. Jing had a go in the simulator and ran into the back of a police car. Women drivers ;-) ;-)
We ended our visit by giving a talk ("Sex, lies, and videogames") on our research at Toronto. We described the recent work done by Sijing, Alina, Jing, and Jessica. The talk seemed to be well received and we got many questions during and after the talk.
It was a good way to spend a Friday and it will be great to go back again sometime soon to hear how the video game research at McMaster is progressing. It was great to be in a department where so many people are doing cutting edge research in perception!
We also visited Judy Shedden's lab and had a very enjoyable discussion with Judy and Scott Watter and some of their students (Jim, Patrick, and Michelle). They have several experiments in progress, or planned, and it will be interesting to see how they turn out. Judy is an expert in ERP methods and has started to look at the differences between gamers and non-gamers using that tool. Then we toured Hong-Jin Sun's lab and met with his group who are doing work on spatial cognition. One of their lines of research uses a DriveSafety driving simulator and they can measure UFOV during the driving task. Jing had a go in the simulator and ran into the back of a police car. Women drivers ;-) ;-)
We ended our visit by giving a talk ("Sex, lies, and videogames") on our research at Toronto. We described the recent work done by Sijing, Alina, Jing, and Jessica. The talk seemed to be well received and we got many questions during and after the talk.
It was a good way to spend a Friday and it will be great to go back again sometime soon to hear how the video game research at McMaster is progressing. It was great to be in a department where so many people are doing cutting edge research in perception!
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