RevitalVision: How Did Dr. White Do?

He finished! Dr. White has completed a 25 session "Low Myopia" RevitalVision program after being switched over from the Sport program. How did it go? Well, Dr. White can now see a full line better on the eye chart without wearing his glasses in each of his eyes! His right eye went from 20/40 to 20/30 in the right eye, and from 20/30 to almost 20/20 in the left eye.

"I'm not wearing my glasses to drive during the day anymore," said Dr. White. "I'm watching TV without my glasses, too!"

RevitalVision is a computer training program that actually increases the ability of your brain to see better. Our eyes gather and focus images which are then transported to the back of our brains. It's there, in the brain, that we actually see. The RevitalVision program increases the processing speed of the visual information, recruits additional visual pathways, and increases contrast sensitivity to allow you to see better.

There are specific programs for Low Myopia, Sports Vision, Post-Cataract and Post-LASIK, as well as an FDA approved program for Amblyopia or "lazy eye".   Ask us about this amazing, exciting non-surgical way to improve your vision!

Dr. Darrell White Speaks About Revitalvision in Live Webinar tonight for Eyemaginations

Dr. Darrell White will be going live tonight at 6 pm!  

He was asked by Eyemaginations to be the presenter for the 
"Eyemaginations Premium Webinar Series: RevitalVision".

Revitalvision Website


He will be speaking and answering questions to fellow eye practitioners across the U.S. about Revitalvision the training system that "trains the brain to see better".

Dr. White RevitalVision Sessions 6 & 7

Dr. White scared the heck out of our technicians when he came out of the RevitalVision room...no one knew he was even in the office! Let's see what he had to say:

"My floaters got in the way!! I've had floaters since I was a young teenager and I almost never see them unless I'm looking for them. One of them sat right in the middle of my vision for about half of my Session 6. Thankfully no one was in the room with me; I would have had a
hard time explaining why I was
shaking my head so hard!

See yesterdays blog for some great info about floaters: http://skyvisioncenters.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-are-those-spots-in-front-of-my.html

I have the rhythm of the sessions down now. About 30 minutes each time. Smaller and smaller, lighter and lighter. I like the "Which one is darker?" sessions--I seem to be able to see them really well. I scored a 90 on Session 6 but only an 85 on Session 7. I'll have to wait for Kelly to let me know what that means. Does your score go down as it gets harder, or does this mean I'm slipping back into the average category? We'll see what she says.

This is really hard work, though. You really have to want to improve your vision to do this, but everything we've seen at Skyvision leads us to believe that it's worth it. I've joked over the years that the faster I get at doing cataract surgery the shorter my attention span gets! These 30+ minute sessions of intense concentration are good training for my attention span, too!"

Tune in for updates on Dr. White's progress.

Dr. White and RevitalVision Sessions 4 & 5

Dr. White is still doing great with RevitalVision and the SportsVision module. Here's what he had to say about Sessions 4 and 5:


"Wow! This is getting HARD! I mentioned last time that the images get smaller and smaller while they also get dimmer and dimmer. It turns out that the better you do on your previous sessions the smaller and dimmer they get as you go on! Tough stuff.

I'm finding that I need to take mini-breaks a little more frequently now since I am concentrating so hard. I've always had a bit of a dry eye problem (I use Restasis) so I've been using artificial tears during my sessions as well. It seems like my results are good, though. The program sends you an email after each session with a graph to show your results, and my trainer Kelly has been very encouraging. Each session is taking just a little over 30 minutes, and I got my highest score yet today on Session 5: a 92!

My goal is to get in at least 4 sessions per week and so far, so good. I'm still wondering when I will have to do this without my glasses, though."


Stay tuned for more updates from Dr. White as his RevitalVision adventure continues.

Dr. White and RevitalVision: Training Begins!

Dr. White is going gangbusters with his RevitalVision training using the SportsVision Program. He finished the 3 introductory "Session 0" sessions and moved into the training sessions; there are 20 training sessions. So far he has done Sessions 1 and  2.

"Wow! That's hard work! The program asked me to wear my glasses for each session so far; the hardest part is remembering to bring them to the office from my car since I don't really wear them that much. The sessions take a TON of concentration, and since my vision with my glasses is very good I have to hang in there with very small images that are very, VERY faint. Whew!

Although I knew the basic structure of the training program it's hard to truly be prepared for the work you do until you start. I knew that the images would get more and more faint, and I sorta knew that I would work with smaller and smaller targets. What was a little bit of a surprise is how the 3-image tests work. Not only do you have to pick which option has 3, rather than 2, images, and not only are they really tiny, and not only do they get really faint, but the images get closer and closer together as the session goes on! I was really concentrating hard there at the end of this one.

I think my scores were pretty good, 87 on Session 1 and 91 on Session 2, but I admit I have no idea what a top score might be. Maybe 100? My vision trainer Terry's boss told me I'm not really in the "High Achiever" category, though; it took me 29:56 minutes to do Session 1 and 25:00 mins to do Session 2 which he said was sort of average speed. [Terry's boss is a friend of Dr. White's so we don't know how seriously to take this!]"


So far Dr. White is on a pace of about 3 Sessions per week. Tune in for more progress reports.

Dr. White's RevitalVision Session 2

Dr. White went right back to RevitalVision to do his second session:

"Well, this time I was smart enough to bring my distance glasses in to the room right in the beginning! I'm going to have to ask my Vision Trainer when I'm supposed to stop wearing them because my goal is to increase my uncorrected vision, my vision WITHOUT wearing my driving glasses.

I think I know how this is going to go, now. Session 2 is the first calibration session where the RevitalVision program figures out where you are to start. I was a little intimidated when I saw the screen announcing 10 sections, though; it took me 35 minutes to do 4 in round 1! The program worked through images called GABOR PATCHES, little circles with lines in them that are various sizes and have various degrees of contrast or darkness. The tests worked me through series of images that were of gradually smaller sizes and gradually less darkness or contrast. I felt pretty quick, although I goofed up the responses on occasion by pushing the wrong mouse button, even though I knew the answer. I wonder if the program or my trainer knows when I do that?!

I've been telling patients that Sessions 2 and 3 last about 45:00; mine took 37:00 and I felt pretty good about the results. I do see very well with my glasses so that's not very surprising. Each screen in all 10 rounds only had one image, though. I have a sneaky suspicion that Session 3 is going to have 2 or 3 images on each screen, getting smaller and smaller, and dimmer and dimmer!

Hmmm...I might need to slow down a bit!"


Tune in for updates on Dr. White's experience and results as he does the RevitalVision Sportsvision Training Program.

RevitalVision Session 1 With Dr. White

Dr. White just came out of our darkened RevitalVision room after completing the introductory session. Here's what he had to say:

"I was a little surprised that the calibration process was repeated right in the beginning! We had the room and the computer and the monitor all set up yesterday so I thought I'd just fly into battle. No big deal, but I wonder if that will happen every day when I step up to bat?

The first training session is just to show you how to do the program so it's really important to be able to see everything. My time in the room is just a little bit longer than it might have been; I had to run out to my car when the program told me 'If you have glasses or contacts wear them for this part."!! I had a little crisis of confidence in the first module. I THOUGHT it said left button for first choice offered and right button for the second, but I got all flustered when the computer dinged at me! Was a ding good or bad?!

OK...dings are bad. First choice, left mouse button. Second choice, right mouse button. GOT IT! Phew!

After I got that critical detail down pat I flew through the second and third  modules. Total time for my introductory RevitalVision session = 27:00! I have a feeling it's gonna be way harder once I stop wearing even the tiny distance prescription I have in my driving glasses though!"

Stay tuned for more news from Dr. White's RevitalVision adventures!

RevitalVision: How Does It Work?

So how exactly does RevitalVision work? How do we train our brain to see better? It turns out the RevitalVision takes advantage of something called "neural plasticity", and the concept of neural plasticity was actually proven in the science of vision. We once thought that our brains were "hardwired" sometime around the age of 20 or 25. It turns out that we can actually open or create new pathways in our brains once we figure out the best way to stimulate those pathways.

Think of every activity that you do as being controlled by a "highway" of nerve cells in your brain. Each pathway is almost like a 6 Lane Hwy. with only one lane open. RevitalVision, actually any kind of training that opens up new pathways, does one of either two things: either we open up to more lanes on the highway right next to our original lane, or we increase the speed limit on our 1st Lane. from, say, 55 to 110!

Maybe even both! Improvement that we have seen with RevitalVision on the eye chart and contrast sensitivity, how sharp images appear to us, suggests that we may actually not only open up new neural pathways, but we may also make our original pathway faster!

So in a sense RevitalVision is ramping up the highway to vision.

Dr. White will be testing out his "highway" of nerve cells over the next few months, so stay tuned for his feedback on this.

RevitalVision and Dr. White

Our own Dr. Darrell White is about to embark on his own RevitalVision training! "I've been having just a little bit of blurriness when driving, especially at night," said Dr. White. "After my LASIK in 1999 I've really only had to wear reading glasses after turning 45 or so (Dr. White is now 52). My corneas were so thin that I was only going to be able to have LASIK done once so the little distance prescription I now have needs to be taken care of some other way."

Enter RevitalVision! Most of what Dr. White has in the way of a distance vision problem is due to a little bit of astigmatism. The perfect solution for him is the RevitalVision Sportsvision program. We are awaiting delivery of the module right now.

Dr. White: "I"ll report on my progress and the experience right here! I can't wait to get this permanent improvement and stop wearing my driving glasses again."

RevitalVision and the Hubble Space Telescope

Train your brain to see better! How does this work actually? Well, we think a very good example that helps to explain how RevitalVision works is the Hubble space telescope. Remember when the telescope was initially launched and it was a big problem with focusing the telescope? It turns out that the mirror, the focusing element in most big telescopes, was very poorly focused. The mirror not only had some astigmatism but also had something called "higher order aberrations". It took five visits to the Hubble from the Space Shuttle to finally get the optics of the mirror right.

1990 Hubble image.

The last Space Shuttle mission was in 1999 so the last time the mirror was "focused" was 11 years ago. But every year since we've been getting better and better images from the Hubble space telescope. Absolutely brilliant views of distant solar systems and galaxies, each year bringing a clearer view of the rest of our universe. How can this be if we are using 1999 vintage optics?

2009 Hubble image.

Once the optics were optimized on the Hubble space telescope images that were captured were sent back to Earth in exactly the same way. However, here on earth, we have been using better, faster, and stronger computers to evaluate those images. In other words, we have been bringing better processing to bare upon those images. Hence, better views!

In a nutshell that's how RevitalVision works. Once we've done everything that we possibly can do to get a better image from our eyes, we can now use RevitalVision to make our brain process that image better! We can train our brain to see better!

How cool is that?!