Use of Eye Exercises to Improve Vision

Children in the United States watch an average of twenty-eight hours of television and play around thirteen hours of video games per week. When their eyes are focused, people tend to blink their eyes less, exacerbating the problem of eye fatigue or stress. The objective of this study is to see if a novel exercise technique can increase eye muscle strength and widen peripheral vision. Experiments were conducted by asking the test subjects to follow, with their eyes, a set of blinking LED lights on 3 vision exercise devices. These LED lights were laid in circular or diagonal configurations, and programmed using a microcontroller to blink or 'move' in certain directions and at certain speeds. An endurance score, measured as total time that the test subject completed while following the blinking LED lights before his/her eyes became tired, was recorded. Nineteen test subjects aged 12-81 were asked to exercise their eyes four times over 2 weeks using the devices for as long as they could until they experienced mild eye fatigue. Endurance scores, peripheral vision, and peripheral reading ranges were assessed before and after the training sessions.