Computer game to help vision

A new computer game for visually impaired children has been made available for families, schools and healthcare providers to play online.

‘Eyelander’ has been designed to help young people with cerebral visual impairment to move their eyes more efficiently by finding the correct colourful shape shown in different places on the screen.

It was developed by a team of neuroscientists from the University of Lincoln, the WESC Foundation and Mutant Labs, who believed that playing the game ten times over four weeks may improve functional vision.

Jonathan Waddington, computational neuroscientist from WESC, said: ‘We developed a prototype game with input from the residents of our school, and spent two years testing it with NHS patients before working with a professional games developer to create a browser game. Now, we want to raise awareness of this potentially life-changing project with the ultimate goal of improving access to effective vision therapy for visually impaired young people.’