We have designed the following use cases that model the ways we expect 3D4Amb will be used and the possible interactions with physicians and patients.

Diagnosis

The 3D4Amb system can be used for the screening and measurement of the amblyopia. The physician will save the parameters corresponding to the kind of amblyopia and these data will be reloaded by the 3D4Amb software used by the patient. It may be also used to measure convergence insufficiency in a similar way as stereograms and for an estimation of squint angle in the presence of strabismus.

Passive Image and Movie Viewing

Another use of 3D4Amb is to visualize images and clips. 3D4Amb includes an image and video viewer that is able to send two different images to both eyes. This activity, although it is passive, since it does not require any action by the child, could be performed for prolonged time and would allow to exercise the lazy eye while performing activities, like watching movies, likely to be appealing for children.

Vision Rebalancing

A possibile use of 3D4amb is for vision rebalancing. If you want to try it, follow these instructions.

Video Games and Exercises

While patching is classified as passive method, other treatments which require some activity on the part of the patients are classified as active. Active methods are intended to enhance treatment of amblyopia in a number of ways, including increased compliance and attention during the treatment periods (due to activities that are interesting for the patient) and the use of stimuli designed to activate and to encourage connectivity between certain cortical cell types.

The most advanced and active use of 3D4Amb is the active playing with interactive games or exercises, which will stream binocular images. In this settings, the child plays with a special video game which will exploit the binocular vision to send to the lazy eye all the details while the normal eye will see only a part of the game scene. To successfully complete the game or the exercise the patient must use the information shown to the lazy eye (and possibly fuse it with the information shown to the normal eye). In this way, the amblyotic eye is more stimulated and the fusion encouraged. The game application must continuously monitor the success rate of the game in order to adjust the difficulty based on the real capability of the player.