This iPad app trains your eyes for better than 20/20 vision
It's all to do with brain plasticity you see
Ultimeyes is aniPad app which claims to noticeably improve your eyesight, from ditching your reading glasses to enhancing your long distance vision and improved visibility at night.
While it sounds too good to be true, it’s grounded in science.
A study published in the journal Current Biology outlines how neuroscientist Aaron Seitz used the app to lengthen the distance at which 19 baseball players could clearly see.
After 30 25-minute sessions, players improved their long distance vision by an average of 31 percent, with many of them going beyond 20/20 vision.
Seven players, in fact, reached 20/7.5 vision. That means that they can see clearly at 20 feet, while someone with normal vision could only achieve the same clarity no more than 7.5 feet away.
Too good to be true?
While it sounds crazy, there is an explanation.
The Ultimeyes app doesn’t train the eyes or eye muscles directly.
Instead, it targets the brain and works on rewiring it, in a process called neuroplasticity.
The app itself exercises the visual cortex by displaying fuzzy patterns called Gabor stimuli, which materialise against a grey background.
The aim is is to locate them, and tap them away. Think Whack-A-Mole with the worst graphics you’ve ever seen, and you’re pretty much there.
By exposing your brain to these patterns on a regular basis, you’re forcing it to process them more efficiently, ultimately rewarding you with clearer long distance vision.
It’s a little like lifting weights at the gym. Lift regularly and your muscles will have to grow to adapt to the new challenges you’re throwing at them. Except in this case,you’re getting sharper vision, not bigger guns.
Try it now
If you’ve got an iPad then you can take the £3.99 Ultimeyes app for a spin right now, though don’t expect to see any improvements immediately.
Stick at it though and you could achieve super-human vision, call yourself The Hawk, and fight crime in tight spandex.
Update: We’ve just downloaded the Ultimeyes app from the app store and it seems to be crashing on us, so it’s probably best to hold off downloading it before it gets sorted. We’ll keep you updated.
[Cell., Ultimeyesvision, via Popular Mechanics, Reddit]
[Image credit: Evey-Eyes, deviantart]
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