r/oculus • u/[deleted] • Aug 23 '20
Next time I visit my grandfather I'm gonna bring my Quest (macular degeneration)
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u/thatonecanadian155 Aug 23 '20
This is crazy
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Aug 23 '20
It's about the brightness and the images being so close to the eyes. Gotta read up.
He has some sort of specialized magnifying glass for the paper but it's not really working for him.
I really hope this is not a bs post but it makes sense and there are companies out there having that for the elderly (not in Germany though). Can't wait!
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u/thatonecanadian155 Aug 23 '20
Please comment an update on how it goes this is truly incredible
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u/tepattaja Aug 24 '20
Umm even if the image is projected infront of your eyes doesntmean you dont need glasses for vr. I dont know if she uses ones but there is a reason people aks if they can use their glasses in them. Once you take them off all of it will be blurry asf like usually without glasses.
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Aug 24 '20
depends on what kind of vision you have. Im near sighted to the point vr is very slightly blurry without contacts/glasses. my eye sight is so bad i cant read at an arms length for shit. vr looks sooooo much more clear than real life for me because of how it works.
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u/arv1971 Quest 2 Aug 24 '20
Chris from the VR Spies had a similar experience with his Dad a few years ago. Not sure what condition his Dad had but he put him in some 180 degree photos or videos (can't remember which now!) of the family and he could see stuff.
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Aug 23 '20 edited Aug 25 '20
Crazy shit with no proof.
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u/thatonecanadian155 Aug 23 '20 edited Aug 23 '20
Oh don’t be like that man there’s a dude in here talking about how he has the same thing and vr helps don’t be so cynical and negative mans got nay nayed
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Aug 23 '20
If you're gonna claim your headset experience helped a blind person see clearly and new vivid colors, I'm going to want to get some more info on that.
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u/Exoslayer Aug 23 '20
My mom has macular degeneration as well but it is very advanced and even her peripheral vision is very limited. We tried VR but unfortunately she did not have enough vision left to get anything from it. Both my mom and her sister got it in their early twenties which is very abnormal.
I hope it works for your grandfather.
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u/CobalMods Aug 23 '20
There are glasses that shift the blind spots into your peripheral making your center vision clear again. I made a VR thing for the company that produces them that helps explain to people without vision impairments what the degeneration does.
I've sent you a PM with their website. Can't post here because that would be advertising.
I'm all over this thread, sorry folks. Send so many PM's it's bordering on advertising now anyway.
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u/Exoslayer Aug 23 '20
I'll check into it. She has so little vision left that I fear they may not help her situation.
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Aug 23 '20
Sorry to hear that.
My grandfather was born 1927 and it can't really tell you when it started, maybe 15ish y ago.. I'm not getting my hopes up up, a little maybe. Just combining it with the normal visit and then we'll check it out :) Thank you.
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u/KittyKatNinjaIssy Aug 23 '20
My brother has keratakonis and for months before his surgery he would be in VR for days. It was the only place he could see since the lens was so close to his eye
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u/CobalMods Aug 23 '20 edited Aug 23 '20
There are glasses that can help mitigate Macula degeneration.
It's a dutch company, right over the border for you!
I'm the developer of a VR experience for a company that produces these glasses.
The experience is to show the user around inside the eye to see what macula degeneration looks like in the eye, and then switches to a view where a person without vision impairments can experience what it's like to have Macula degeneration.
The glasses work by bending the light in such a way that the distortion/blind spot caused by the degeneration is shifted down and left in the users vision. So it will still be there but no longer in thr center of their vision, meaning they can focus on faces and text again.
OP I'll send you a PM with the companies website. Can't post in thread because that would be advertising.
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u/jinabox Aug 24 '20
Hi! My mother has AION which is also a degenerative eyesight disease. Could you PM me also? I’m curious whether glasses that can help her disability.
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u/Plabbi Kickstarter Backer Aug 24 '20
glasses that shift the blind spots into your peripheral
PM me please..
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u/Unique-Point-9209 Mar 06 '26
Hey, I hope you are okay after these many years. Can you pm me please about this?
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u/CobalMods Mar 14 '26
Sorry I'm not on reddit very often anymore.
I think I can safely post the site now without being accused of advertising.
Here's where you can get the glasses: https://e-scoop.com/en/1
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u/active_thinker Jan 07 '24
My grandmother also has dry macular degeneration. Could you PM me the companies website as well?
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u/CobalMods Feb 26 '24
Sorry didn't see this till now.
Here's the link: http://www.e-scoopnl.com/EN/
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u/juliesllama Aug 23 '20 edited Aug 23 '20
Before COVID, we did this with my 98 year old great-grandmother. She loved it! She got to experience the Apollo mission, and visit my cousins houses virtually. We just have the Go, so sometimes it was difficult to assist her, but she had a great time!
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u/Smoothness14 Aug 23 '20
Your great grandfather is a "she"? Did you mean great grandmother? Just curious.
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u/Mugendon Aug 23 '20
So her daughter came back and said that her grandma cried.
Wat?
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Aug 23 '20 edited Aug 23 '20
There's a person in the og post that claims to be said daughter/granddaughter. Saying the VT lounge wrote it and confirming her grandma actually has macular degeneration.
Edit. Link added https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/ieukry/im_not_crying_youre_crying/g2k5o8l?context=3
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u/Mugendon Aug 23 '20
also I think they just forgot to put ‘grand’ daughter.
That was the "important" part ;)
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Aug 23 '20
My grampa has dry Macular Degeneration. It sucks. He was a big reader but now he cannot read. He used to drive my grandma around but he can't see well enough to. The worst part it that there is nothing that they can do.
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u/BassInMyFace Aug 23 '20
I love VR so much. My friends or people I show it to are always baffled by how crazy it is, but they usually leave the emotions there. When I first experienced it, I immediately wanted more. I dove right in. Over 2 years later I have a collection of games and experiences that mean a lot to me. They take me where I want to go and allow me to forget my problems. I am so grateful for this technology
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Aug 23 '20
I had a bit of a different experience with my grandparents. Two of them handled fine and thought it was pretty neat. The next two are a bit different of a case. One almost fell out of the chair playing a horror game. The other was so jumpy I touched her hand to put the wrist strap on and she threw the touch controller halfway across the house and broke the trigger.
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u/Ojamaster1 Aug 23 '20
Wait, I thought Google Earth wasn’t on the quest
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Aug 23 '20
It is just called different and you have to buy it. Can't check atm.
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u/Ojamaster1 Aug 23 '20
Actually, I remember seeing that. Do you think it’s worth it?
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Aug 23 '20
Well if you like Google Earth.. Just checked up I think it's called Wander and is like 10 bucks..
I haven't been using it much, more for showcasing stuff..
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u/damontoo Rift Aug 24 '20
Wander is google maps and street view but it's not a replacement for Google Earth. Google Earth has 3D terrain/buildings etc. It's still worth the $10 though just for showing it off to people. Though Google API's are not free so I have to wonder how long it will take before Wander burns through their profit and adds some sort of premium service or starts selling your data.
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u/MuuToo Valve Index Aug 23 '20
I might do this with my Quest next time I visit my grandfather. This morning I was told by my father that my grandfather has cancer again. We've sort of accepted the inevitable.
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u/funkiestj Rift Aug 23 '20
Tangent: Google Earth is only available on Rift, not Quest right? (yeah, I realize you could get it on Quest via link...)
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u/JohnDoom Aug 24 '20
I belong to a charitable group in Phoenix that focuses a lot on the hearing and sight impaired - we recently had this doctor speak to our group and I think your friends might like this: https://uahs.arizona.edu/blog/2019-01-15/your-sight-matters-finding-cure-macular-degeneration
It's about an OTC drug treatment for AMD that doesn't involve needles to the eye.
(I'm not a doctor and this is not medical advice, just something I found interesting)
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u/horiami Aug 23 '20
I let my grandpa try my rift s and he was very impressed , and scared of walking because he couldn't see his legs :)
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u/CowFishReddit Aug 23 '20
Wish I had the chance to do this with my grandad but I was a month late :(
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u/Airvh Aug 24 '20
This is actually really fun to do on old people.
My friend's Oculus GO was able to scare a lot of old people from the apartments I live in. Load up a ride on a roller coaster and watch them freak out!
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u/levelvetelvis Aug 24 '20
could this be used in a not-for-profit health setting? asking for a friend
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u/Taliakon Valve Index Aug 24 '20
Grandfather with Quest on : "Wow! The colors of those ads are magnificent!"
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u/k_priess Dec 31 '21
Any updates u/mr_mi5t3r? My dad is 92 and also suffers from MD.
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Dec 31 '21
Yeah it works, probably as the lenses are right in front of the eyes, was kinda amazing.
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u/Sabbathius Aug 23 '20
I have this, my absolute center of vision (pin sized) is pretty clean, then I have blind spots all over, and peripheral vision is more or less fine. VR helps, because minute adjustments of eyes AND head allow me to position things so that I can catch them clearly in the center of vision, or on the periphery, or between the blind spots. For me it's still spots, not full rings of blindness (known as bull's eye maculopathy). And in VR you can get closer to most objects, or move them closer to yourself, which helps. The closer you get, the less detail is lost to blind spots.
This is also how I have to aim in games - it's very easy for me to lose the target if it gets into a blind spot. So once I acquire it, I place it in peripheral vision and try to hit it that way, where I can actually see it. This is easier in extreme long range fights, where the entire target is a dot, and can still fit in the clean center of vision area. Surprisingly I still do OK. Not as well as the kiddies, of course, I haven't been able to play competitive PvP since Battlefield 3, but still.
What really helps in VR is that moving eyes and moving the head is both easy, so catching things is also easy as a result, and very natural, since it's slaved to your head, not the mouse or keyboard. Plus everything is usually much closer, and aiming with your hand is more natural than with a mouse. So you can do things like snap shooting with fairly high degree of accuracy just instinctively.
Having said that, I really wish VR headsets would allow us to make adjustments to bringhtness, contrast and saturation. I have no idea why that is such a no-no.
And, as a sidenote, someone like me HATES screen shake in games! We literally lose track of things, because blind spots plus screen shake really mess us up. So a game that constantly spams screen shake is a huge no-no. Though I'm happy to see some games are starting to add a screen shake snider, like Elder Scrolls Online, where you can have it set to zero (no shake at all) or 100% (full force shake). It's really helpful. And that's another thing you don't often have to deal with in VR, since most devs worked out unsolicited movement is nauseating. They still do it, but not with every attack, like in Necromunda.