Sightseeing

Name: Sightseeing
Author: University of California, Riverside

University of California, Riverside

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Proven effective in research studies · Supported by multiple studies

For:General Public & Enthusiasts

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App Summary

Sightseeing is a vision training game based on perceptual learning principles, designed to improve visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in healthy adults and individuals with low vision. The associated research demonstrated that training improved acuity and contrast sensitivity in healthy adults (N=22) and a patient with amblyopia, with benefits translating to real-world performance gains for collegiate baseball players. The authors conclude that this game-based approach has significant potential as a visual training therapy to produce broad-based benefits for both normally-seeing and low-vision individuals.

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Detailed Description

Functionality & Mechanism

Developed by the University of California Riverside Brain Game Center, Sightseeing is a vision training program delivered through a reward-based game interface. It integrates principles of perceptual learning to enhance visual performance. Training sessions, approximately 25 minutes each, involve a series of psychophysical tasks, including the detection of low-contrast Gabor patches and contour integration exercises. The system's design reinforces program adherence and aims to generate broad-based improvements in visual acuity and sensitivity.

Evidence & Research Context

A study involving 22 healthy adults found that an average of 24 sessions significantly improved foveal and peripheral acuity and contrast sensitivity compared to a non-training control group.
The program demonstrated transferable real-world benefits in a study of collegiate baseball players, who exhibited improved vision, a reduction in strikeouts, and an increase in runs created post-training.
Research documents broad-based improvements in visual function for healthy adults, including enhanced acuity, contrast sensitivity across the full spectrum, and improved peripheral vision thresholds.
In a case study, a 5-year-old with amblyopia demonstrated clinically significant gains, with acuity in the amblyopic eye improving from 20/80 to 20/40 and binocular acuity normalizing to 20/20.

Intended Use & Scope

This system is intended for individuals seeking to enhance visual performance, including healthy adults and athletes. It may also function as an adjunct training tool for specific low-vision conditions under professional guidance. The program does not diagnose or treat eye disease and is not a substitute for comprehensive ophthalmological or optometric care.

Studies & Publications

3 publications

Peer-reviewed research associated with this app.

Effectiveness/Outcome Study

Improved vision and on field performance in baseball through perceptual learning

Deveau et al. (2014) · Current Biology

Improved baseball players' vision and on-field performance, increasing runs and reducing strike-outs.

Our visual abilities profoundly impact performance on an enormous range of tasks. Numerous studies examine mechanisms that can improve vision [1]. One limitation of published studies is that learning effects often fail to transfer beyond the trained task or to real world conditions. Here we report the results of a novel integrative perceptual learning program that combines multiple perceptual learning approaches: training with a diverse set of stimuli [2], optimized stimulus presentation [3], multisensory facilitation [4], and consistently reinforcing training stimuli [5], with the goal to generalize benefits to real world tasks. We applied this training program to the University of California Riverside (UCR) Baseball Team and assessed benefits using standard eye-charts and batting statistics. Trained players showed improved vision after training, had decreased strike-outs, and created more runs; and even accounting for maturational gains, these additional runs may have led to an additional four to five team wins. These results demonstrate real world transferable benefits of a vision-training program based on perceptual learning principles.

Effectiveness/Outcome Study

Broad-based visual benefits from training with an integrated perceptual-learning video game

Deveau et al. (2014) · Vision Research

Improved visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, and peripheral vision through video game training.

Perception is the window through which we understand all information about our environment, and therefore deficits in perception due to disease, injury, stroke or aging can have significant negative impacts on individuals' lives. Research in the field of perceptual learning has demonstrated that vision can be improved in both normally seeing and visually impaired individuals, however, a limitation of most perceptual learning approaches is their emphasis on isolating particular mechanisms. In the current study, we adopted an integrative approach where the goal is not to achieve highly specific learning but instead to achieve general improvements to vision. We combined multiple perceptual learning approaches that have individually contributed to increasing the speed, magnitude and generality of learning into a perceptual-learning based video-game. Our results demonstrate broad-based benefits of vision in a healthy adult population. Transfer from the game includes; improvements in acuity (measured with self-paced standard eye-charts), improvement along the full contrast sensitivity function, and improvements in peripheral acuity and contrast thresholds. The use of this type of this custom video game framework built up from psychophysical approaches takes advantage of the benefits found from video game training while maintaining a tight link to psychophysical designs that enable understanding of mechanisms of perceptual learning and has great potential both as a scientific tool and as therapy to help improve vision.

In the Media

Athletes Develop "Super Vision" Due to Brain Training Exercises

Aaron Seitz from the University of California, Riverside and colleague Jenni Deveau developed brain training exercises to improve athletes' vision beyond normal 20/20 sight, using Gabor patch contrast detection tasks. Their study with 17 UC Riverside baseball players showed that after daily 25-minute sessions over a month, "the players' eyesight had improved by about 30 percent" and the team won an average of 4.7 more games in their season.

CorrectvisionRead article

Could an app improve your eyesight?

Aaron Seitz developed UltimEyes to improve users' eyesight by using simple puzzles that activate the visual cortex in the brain. In a small study, 19 baseball players lengthened the distance they could see clearly after using the app 30 times for 25-minute intervals. Seitz explained that "if you really want to get changes that are going to make you be able to see a line or two lower in an eye chart, you really need to work at this."

BBCRead article

WATCH: Researchers Reveal Odd Way To Boost Your Vision

University of California Riverside researchers developed UltimEyes to improve vision through perceptual learning, testing the app with baseball players who completed 25-minute brain-training sessions four days per week during the 2013 NCAA season. "The vision tests demonstrate that training-based benefits transfer outside the context of the computerized training program to standard eye charts," said study co-author Dr. Aaron Seitz, noting players reported seeing the ball better and greater peripheral vision. The study recorded an average 31 percent improvement in binocular vision, with some players' visual acuity jumping from 20/20 to 20/7.5.

HuffpostRead article

Brain training has vision benefits for baseball and beyond

University of California, Riverside researchers developed Sightseeing to improve vision through brain training, using a game that requires players to find and select patterns modeled after stimuli that visual cortex neurons respond to best. UC Riverside baseball players who used the app for 25-minute sessions four days a week had 4.4 percent fewer strikeouts and helped their team score 41 more runs than projected. The researchers estimate this progress accounted for an additional four or five wins during the 2013 season.

AhchealthenewsRead article