Working with your child
Using Equal-Eyes with your child can initially seem challenging.
The challenges exists as there in no direct feedback between what the child is observing making it difficult to determine how to guide your child through the process of setting up the environment to enable the child to gain the most benefit from the application.
Whilst this limitation exists, I hope to provide guidance to make the process as smooth as possible.
This guide has been specifically written for V1.09 of the application.
Getting Started
The first step is getting your child familiar with the Quest 2. If your child wears glasses it may be a good idea to buy the magnetic prescription lenses that simply clip into the Quest 2. (See the Reloptix Link on the home page). Also, the Quest 2 is supplied with a shim that clips between the Head-Set and the facial surround that provides a little more room to cater for glasses or prescription lenses.
The next step is to set up the head-strap so that it the headset sits comfortably and securely on your child's head. It's important that it is not able to shift around as this may affect the setup.
- Determine which eye of your child is the weaker eye. The eye in which the child sees best is of course the stronger eye.
- Remove the headset and enter the setup scene in preparation for you child.
- Within the setup scene do the following:
- ensure that the three planes are set to zero (H, V and the Z plane/Rotation) by pressing the respective zero button.
- Set the weak eye
- In this scene you will observe a target with a green ball in it's center. As your child has strabismus, what your child will see will be a double image eg two targets each with their own ball. The child will need to adjust the image so that the two targets and ball overlay each other to form a single Target and ball.
Performing the Alignment
Your child may not understand or perceive the mis-alignment. In which case an alternative approach can be taken.
First enter the Dark Room scene. The parent will observe a monkey in a cage for correctly aligned eyes. Pass the headset to the child and ask the child if the monkey is exactly positioned in the cage with no bits of it protruding either side or above or below.
If the child sees that the monkey is trying to escape eg some parts of it are not in the cage, then the child may have some mis-alignment.
If the child see's that the monkey is slightly above or below then the V-Plane will need some adjustment. If the child see's that the monkey is slightly to the left or right of the cage then the H-Plane will need some adjustment.
Take the headset from the child and enter the setup scene.
Make adjustments to the respective plane and then save the settings.
Re-enter the Dark Room and pass the headset to the child and again ask the child if the monkey is still trying to escape.
Keep doing this until the child is happy that the monkey if fully encased in the cage.
Important note: If your child has a weaker eye. It might be that the child cannot see either the cage or the monkey. In this case, while the child is wearing the headset, press the X or Y buttons to adjust the brightness of the strong eye so that the child can see both. The child will need to learn to do this by his/herself until familiarity is achieved. So guiding the fingers of the child on the left hand controller would be necessary until the child can do this alone.
In the case of a weaker eye. Use the logs scene to record the value of brightness for the Dark Room.
Advanced Setup
Once the child has achieved a reasonable setup by using the dark room. It will be a good idea to get him/her to try the same in the setup scene with the Green Ball and Target.
First of all, make a note of the H-Plane, V-Plane and Z-Plane Values. In most cases it will be the H-Plane and V-Plane values that have moved away from zero.
Important note: If the child completely loses the alignment. You can zero all of the offsets as previously mentioned and re-enter the values by making the adjustments yourself. Remember to save them once done.
Try to encourage the child to use the setup scene him/herself by, if necessary, adjusting the brightness of the strong eye and then using the righthand thumbstick to make the adjustments so that he/she will only see one ball.
When the child is happy. Remove the headset, record the values in the setup scene and save the settings. Also enter the logs scene and record the value of brightness.
Additional Note: The child may have some rotational error (Z-Plane) This may be hard for the child to understand but if the child is aware that the cross-hair on the ball is rotated slightly about the ball, then the left hand thumbstick can be used to align the rotation. If the child is not aware of this then the Z-Plane should be reset to zero.
Summary
It is important that the setup is completed and saved prior to running any of the exercises. Even if the setup cannot be done accurately, putting the monkey in the cage with the eyes relaxed is an imperative step forward.
The adjustment controls are listed below:
- Right Hand Thumbstick - Adjust the image Up/Down or Left/Right
- Left Hand X/Y Buttons - Adjust the brightness of the Good Eye Up/Down
- Right Hand A Button - Save the adjustments and exit setup.
- Right Hand B Button - Exit setup without saving the adjustments.
- Left Hand Thumbstick - Use with Caution - Adjust the Z-Plane rotations (Normally set to zero)
Super Advanced Controls
The left and right thumbsticks also operate as buttons. In some rarer cases where the child is unable to visualize two green balls, then the right hand thumbstick can be pressed to add blurring to the strong eye which may in turn enhance disparity. The left hand thumbstick can be used to remove blurring.
The values of blurring for each exercise can be observed in the logs scene.
Casting to Mobile or TV
Casting to mobile or a TV is available on the Oculus Quest
It should be pointed out that the casting feature still appears limited. The screen refresh is slow and only one image is presented to the observer. However, it can be used as a means to help guide your child through the process.
Final Notes
Where you physically sit in your living room in relation to your child can affect what your child see's compared to what you see. So it's important to either make a stationary boundary or a room scale boundary.
If you make a stationary boundary, then ensure that you swap places in the same spot as your child when wearing the headset. Trying to keep the height of your head the same as the child's. The headset may go into a pass-through mode if the child is positioned outside of the boundary and all he/she will see will be your living room through the camera's of the headset and not the virtual reality scene.