Future Tense

Can Playing This Video Game Help Cure Lazy Eye?

Dig Rush could be used to treat amblyopia.

Screencap from Ubisoft

When I was growing up, I had a lazy eye. I had to wear a patch over my stronger eye for many years so that good-for-nothing, freeloading, lazy eye could learn some responsibility and toughen up. Wearing a patch was really lousy, though, because people would ask me about it all the time and say things like, “What’s wrong with you?” Always fun to hear. I would have much preferred to treat my condition, which is also called amblyopia, by playing video games. Who wouldn’t? And it seems like that dream may become a possibility.

On Tuesday, developer Ubisoft announced Dig Rush, a game that uses stereoscopic glasses and blue and red figures in varying contrasts to attempt to treat amblyopia. Working in collaboration with McGill University and the eye treatment startup Amblyotech, Ubisoft created a world where controlling a mole character to mine precious metals is really training patients’ brains to coordinate their eyes.

When patients wear patches, they may force their lazy eye to toughen up, but they aren’t doing anything to teach their eyes how to work together. This lack of coordination, called strabismus, is another important factor that the game makers hope can be addressed better by Dig Rush than by “patching” alone.

Amblyotech CEO Joseph Koziak said in a statement, “[This] electronic therapy has been tested clinically to significantly increase the visual acuity of both children and adults who suffer from this condition without the use of an eye patch.” One advantage of Dig Rush, he noted, is that it’s easier to measure compliance with video games.

This actually isn’t the first time people have tried to use video games to treat lazy eye, but Dig Rush seems promising and has been tested in 11 international clinical trials. U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada approval is still pending. It could become almost fun to treat amblyopia if Dig Rush gets approved, though you’ll need a prescription to play the game.