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Vivid Vision

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Vivid Vision
Information
Industry Virtual reality, eye care
Founded 2014
Founder James Blaha, Manish Gupta
Headquarters San Francisco, California, United States
Notable Personnel James Blaha (CEO), Manish Gupta (CTO), Benjamin Backus (chief science officer)
Products Vivid Vision, Vivid Vision Home, Vivid Vision Perimetry
Website https://www.seevividly.com


Vivid Vision is a San Francisco company that makes virtual reality software for eye care. Its main products are a vision therapy system for amblyopia (lazy eye), strabismus and related binocular vision disorders, and Vivid Vision Perimetry (VVP), a visual field test that runs on a VR headset.[1][2] The company grew out of Diplopia, an Oculus Rift game that the programmer James Blaha, who has amblyopia and strabismus, built in 2013 to train his own eyes. The project and company traded as Diplopia until a rebrand to Vivid Vision in early 2015.[3][4]

The clinical version was released to optometrists and ophthalmologists in late 2015. By May 2017 the company said it was in use at more than 90 clinics, which had treated more than 6,000 patients.[5] Its website now states that the platform has been used by more than 100,000 patients since 2014, in more than 50 countries.[1] In independent studies of the therapy, a randomized trial found acuity gains comparable to eye patching, and another study reported improvements in some but not all participants. University groups have also published validation studies of the perimetry test, several of them with company employees as co-authors.[6][7][8][9]

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Checked company history, funding, team, clinic and patient figures, DPVR and VSP items against the cited company pages and press articles, and all eleven studies against PubMed/Crossref records and two full texts. About review dates.

History

Diplopia (2013-2014)

Blaha has said that doctors told him all his life that he could never see in three dimensions.[3] After reading research on neuroplasticity and lazy eye, he began Diplopia as a side project for the Oculus Rift development kit.[10] The first version was a 3D take on Breakout: the player moved a paddle to bat a ball into a wall of bricks, and the headset's two displays were split so that one eye saw some game objects and the other eye saw the rest. Winning required the player to use both eyes together.[3] In a January 2014 guest post for Leap Motion, Blaha wrote that the game was built in Unity Pro, that players could manipulate the contrast of the bricks, ball and paddle so that the brain had to integrate the two images, and that the paddle was controlled by hand through a Leap Motion controller. In the same post he wrote that he was a game developer, not a doctor, that the game had not yet been proven to help amblyopia, and that players should consult an eye doctor first.[11]

Blaha raised money for the project through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.[11] PCGamesN reported in November 2013 that the campaign had long passed its funding target.[3] On the Voices of VR podcast in June 2014, Blaha said that he had seen in 3D for the first time in his life while testing the game, and that he could now use both eyes together in the real world. He said Indiegogo backers who had received the alpha version reported similar results, and that three universities and two vision therapy clinics had expressed interest in studies.[10] These were self-reports, not trial results.

Blaha developed the software with Manish Gupta, who left IBM to co-found the company in 2014.[12][13] In December 2014 CNBC reported that Diplopia had closed a US$700,000 seed round led by SOS Ventures, that it had more than 300 beta testers around the world, many of them using the software under an eye doctor's direction, and that it was already earning revenue from presales of a beta kit sold on Indiegogo. Tuan Tran, the company's advising doctor, was coordinating a pilot study at the Michigan College of Optometry, and the team was working with ophthalmologists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to start a formal pilot study. The same report quoted Sami Kamjoo, a retina surgeon in Irvine, California, who said that the medical literature did not support the idea that a video game could help patients with strabismus and amblyopia, and warned that it could delay treatment for people who could be helped by surgery or other medical care.[13]

Rebrand and clinical launch (2015-2016)

In a March 2015 interview with Road to VR, Blaha confirmed that the team was rebranding from Diplopia to Vivid Vision. Hart, the interviewer, had seen a demo from CTO Manish Gupta at the SVVR conference and expo the previous year. Blaha said the company had changed its plan from a direct consumer release to selling to ophthalmology clinics first, because he did not consider the Oculus Rift DK2 ready for consumers. Asked about the US$400 price point the company had announced the previous year, he said the consumer version would cost "a lot lower", though no final price had been set. He also described an optometry version with more advanced features, and said an optometrist could unlock some settings and features in a patient's home version after a clinic evaluation.[4]

According to the interview, the software then included about ten vision tests, among them visual acuity, stereo acuity, contrast sensitivity, field of view and suppression of the weaker eye. Two of its games were "Bubbles", in which the player popped bubbles in order from nearest to farthest, and "Space", in which the player flew through waypoints while avoiding obstacles; both used Leap Motion hand tracking. The company was working on support for Android-based headsets including the Samsung Gear VR. A trial run independently by UCSF had begun rolling enrollment of participants from the San Francisco Bay Area, with about 25 eligible people interested at the time.[4] A note added to Blaha's Leap Motion post said that as of April 2015 the debut product was rolling out to eye clinics in the United States.[11] The company later dated the launch of its clinical vision therapy suite for optometrists and ophthalmologists to late 2015.[5]

Seed funding and home version (2017-2021)

In May 2017 Vivid Vision announced a US$2.2 million seed round led by Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC. The Venture Reality Fund, CRCM Ventures, SOS Ventures, Anorak Ventures and Liquid 2 Ventures also invested.[2][5][14] At that point the company said that the average clinic treatment lasted about eight months, with patients visiting one or two times a week. It planned a home version, Vivid Vision Home, for desktop and mobile VR, which would require a prescription from an eye doctor.[5] SiliconANGLE reported that the software supported the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Google Daydream, and UploadVR reported plans for a home version on Rift, Vive and Gear VR.[14][2] EuroTimes, the magazine of the European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons, also covered the round.[15]

In April 2021 the Chinese headset maker DPVR announced that its DPVR P1 standalone headset was the first all-in-one VR headset to come with Vivid Vision pre-installed. DPVR described the software as an adjunct treatment for amblyopia, strabismus and vergence disorders, for use at home or in a clinic under the supervision of a licensed eye care professional.[16]

Perimetry and current status

By 2020 the company was also working on VR visual field testing: a 2020 abstract by Benjamin Backus, Blaha and Gupta in Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, cited in the first published VVP study, set out a theory for estimating visual sensitivity from single-intensity stimuli in visual field tests for glaucoma patients. NYU and UCSF researchers published that first clinical study of Vivid Vision Perimetry online in December 2021 (see below).[8] The company's website presents VVP as an at-home test that is used as a microperimetry endpoint in clinical trials for geographic atrophy, age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma, alongside the Vivid Vision training system and a clinic exercise program called EyeBab VT. The site lists CE Mark registered products.[1]

In August 2025 Vivid Vision was named one of three later-stage finalists in the VSP Vision Innovation Challenge, held at Vision Expo West in Las Vegas in September 2025.[17] The later-stage award went to Reyedar.[18]

As of October 2026 the company's team page lists Blaha as CEO and Gupta as CTO, both as founders, and Benjamin Backus as chief science officer. It gives addresses for Vivid Vision, Inc. in San Francisco and for Vivid Vision Asia, Inc. in Tokyo, which it says manages the Asian market in cooperation with the US company, and names distributors in eight countries, including Good-Lite in the United States and Gaush Medical in China.[12]

Products

Product Purpose Notes
Diplopia Dichoptic training game for amblyopia and strabismus Original 2013 Oculus Rift project; block-breaking and space games; later used in research under the name "Diplopia Game"[3][19]
Vivid Vision (clinic) Vision training for amblyopia, strabismus and convergence insufficiency in eye clinics Launched to optometrists and ophthalmologists in late 2015[5][2]
Vivid Vision Home Home training prescribed by an eye doctor Announced in 2017; chosen to deliver the games in the protocol of the Swiss AMBER trial (2023)[5][20]
Vivid Vision Perimetry (VVP) Visual field testing in a VR headset, in clinic or at home Versions studied include VVP Swift and the 10-session VVP-10[8][9]
Vivid Vision Stereo Test Stereoacuity test for VR headsets Version 2 evaluated by University of Geneva researchers in 2023[21]
EyeBab VT Vision exercises for clinics Listed on the company website[1]

XR work

Dichoptic vision therapy

The therapy relies on the fact that a stereoscopic head-mounted display can show a different image to each eye. In Vivid Vision's games, some objects are visible only to the amblyopic eye and others only to the fellow eye, so a patient cannot finish a task by using the stronger eye alone. In the space game described in a 2017 study, for example, the obstacles were shown only to the amblyopic eye and the spaceship only to the fellow eye.[19] Clinicians can also adjust the contrast each eye receives.[13][11] Several of the games also train stereopsis, the perception of depth from binocular vision.[22] It sits within the wider field of virtual reality therapy.

Published studies of the therapy include:

Study Design Reported result
Žiak et al., BMC Ophthalmology (2017), Slovakia 17 adults with anisometropic amblyopia, eight 40-minute sessions with the beta "Diplopia Game" on an Oculus Rift DK2; no control group Mean amblyopic-eye acuity improved from 0.58 to 0.43 logMAR; mean stereoacuity improved from 263.3 to 176.7 seconds of arc; the authors called the results preliminary[19]
Meqdad et al., Current Eye Research (2024), Cairo University Randomized trial of 86 patients with anisometropic or mixed amblyopia: weekly 2-hour Vivid Vision sessions for 10 weeks versus patching Both groups improved; no significant difference between groups at any time point; no serious adverse events[6]
Asare et al., Vision Research (2026), University of British Columbia 21 patients aged 6 to 56 assessed before and after 8 weeks of Vivid Vision treatment given through a local optometry practice, in the clinic or at home Amblyopic-eye acuity improved on average; suppression fell in 43 percent and stereoacuity improved in 14 percent of participants; improvement "in some but not all participants"[7]
Ding et al., Vision Research (2026), University of California, Berkeley Adults with abnormal binocular vision; 30 home training sessions with VR games on the company's platform Most participants improved in stereoacuity; binocular balance and alignment results varied. Co-author Backus disclosed a financial interest in the company[22]

The protocol for the Swiss AMBER trial, a crossover randomized controlled trial published in 2023, planned to use Vivid Vision Home games for 30 minutes a day, five days a week, for eight weeks in people aged 6 to 35 with residual amblyopia. The company provided the licenses free of charge; the protocol states that it had no final authority over the study design or publication.[20]

VR perimetry

Vivid Vision Perimetry uses oculokinetic perimetry: the patient moves the eyes to look at test targets, instead of holding a fixed gaze as in standard automated perimetry. The NYU and UCSF authors of a 2022 study wrote that this allows the test to be taken at home without a skilled technician, although their own tests were run in the clinic. In that study, which used the Oculus Go headset, the VVP Swift test took an average of 8.5 minutes for both eyes, compared with 12.2 minutes for a Humphrey visual field exam, and its mean sensitivity correlated with Humphrey mean deviation with a Pearson coefficient of 0.86 in 24 eyes with glaucoma or suspected glaucoma.[8] A 2024 UCSF study trained 21 glaucoma patients remotely by video call to take the 10-session VVP-10 test at home; 20 completed it, and the test-retest intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.95.[9]

In children aged 7 to 18, a 2024 UCSF pilot study in the Journal of AAPOS found a correlation of 0.48 between Humphrey mean sensitivity and VVP scores after unreliable Humphrey tests were excluded; 35 percent of VVP tests and 39 percent of Humphrey tests were unreliable, and all 23 participants preferred VVP.[23] A study in Ophthalmology Science, published online in August 2025, used VVP to compare responses to increment and decrement stimuli in 69 glaucoma patients and suspects.[24] A 2025 systematic review in PLOS One included the Vivid Vision Perimeter among ten VR perimetry devices compared with standard perimetry in adults with glaucoma, and concluded that more work was needed, particularly on test-retest repeatability.[25] Company employees, including Backus and in some papers Blaha, are co-authors of several of the perimetry studies, and Backus disclosed employment, equity and intellectual property in the company.[8][23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Vivid Vision". Vivid Vision. https://www.seevividly.com/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Jamie Feltham (2017-05-10). "Vivid Vision Raises $2.2 Million To Treat Sight Disorders With VR". UploadVR. https://www.uploadvr.com/vivid-vision-raises-2-2-million-treat-sight-disorders-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Julian Benson (2013-11-30). "Diplopia is an Oculus Rift game that hopes to cure lazy eye and restore depth perception". PCGamesN. https://www.pcgamesn.com/indie/diplopia-oculus-rift-game-hopes-cure-lazy-eye-and-restore-depth-perception. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Brian Hart (2015-03-30). "'Diplopia' Becomes 'Vivid Vision', Trials Get Underway - Interview with CEO James Blaha". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/diplopia-becomes-vivid-vision-trials-get-underway-interview-with-ceo-james-blaha/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 Cris Miranda (2017-05-10). "Announcing our partnership with SoftTech VC, The VR Fund, Liquid 2 Ventures and many others to accelerate our VR vision care platform". Vivid Vision. https://www.seevividly.com/blog/118/Announcing_our_partnership_with_SoftTech_VC_The_VR_Fund_Liquid_2_Ventures_and_many_others_to_accelerate_our_VR_vision_care_platform. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Y. Meqdad, M. El-Basty, A. Awadein, J. Gouda, D. Hassanein (2024). "Randomized Controlled Trial of Patching versus Dichoptic Stimulation Using Virtual Reality for Amblyopia Therapy". Current Eye Research, vol. 49, no. 2. pp. 214-223. doi:10.1080/02713683.2023.2275531. https://doi.org/10.1080/02713683.2023.2275531. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 A. K. Asare, C. S. Ho, H. Y. Im, D. E. Giaschi (2026). "Evaluation of motion perception and binocular vision following dichoptic treatment for amblyopia". Vision Research, vol. 240, article 108745. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2025.108745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2025.108745. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Jason A. Greenfield, Michael Deiner, Anwell Nguyen, Gadi Wollstein, Bertil Damato, Benjamin T. Backus, Mengfei Wu, Joel S. Schuman, Yvonne Ou (2022-03). "Virtual Reality Oculokinetic Perimetry Test Reproducibility and Relationship to Conventional Perimetry and OCT". Ophthalmology Science, vol. 2, no. 1, article 100105. doi:10.1016/j.xops.2021.100105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xops.2021.100105. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Z. K. Chia, A. W. Kong, M. L. Turner, M. Saifee, B. E. Damato, B. T. Backus, J. J. Blaha, J. S. Schuman, M. S. Deiner, Y. Ou (2024). "Assessment of Remote Training, At-Home Testing, and Test-Retest Variability of a Novel Test for Clustered Virtual Reality Perimetry". Ophthalmology Glaucoma, vol. 7, no. 2. pp. 139-147. doi:10.1016/j.ogla.2023.08.006. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ogla.2023.08.006. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Kent Bye (2014-06-02). "#11: James Blaha's Diplopia VR game helped him see in 3D in the real world for the first time of his life. Neuroplasticity and VR therapy for lazy eye". Voices of VR Podcast. https://voicesofvr.com/11-james-blahas-diplopia-vr-game-helped-him-see-in-3d-in-the-real-world-for-the-first-time-of-his-life-neuroplasticity-vr-therapy-for-lazy-eye/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 James Blaha (2014-01-07). "Designing Diplopia: A Game to Exercise Your Eyes". Leap Motion Blog. Leap Motion. Archived from the original on 2024-06-19. https://web.archive.org/web/20240619193020/https://blog.leapmotion.com/designing-diplopia-a-game-to-exercise-your-eyes/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Team". Vivid Vision. https://www.seevividly.com/team. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Jessica Naziri (2014-12-07). "Fixing bad eyesight with the power of video games". CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/05/virtual-reality-game-aims-to-fix-double-vision.html. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Kyt Dotson (2017-05-11). "Vivid Vision raises $2.2M to use virtual reality to treat vision disorders". SiliconANGLE. https://siliconangle.com/2017/05/11/vivid-vision-raises-2-2m-use-virtual-reality-treat-vision-disorders/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  15. ↑ Colin Kerr (2017-05-23). "$2.2 million raised to build VR tools for amblyopia". EuroTimes. European Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons. https://www.escrs.org/channels/eurotimes-articles/22-million-raised-to-build-vr-tools-for-amblyopia. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  16. ↑ "Vivid Vision uses DPVR VR headsets for treating lazy eye". DPVR. 2021-04-30. https://www.dpvr.com/en/vivid-vision-uses-dpvr-vr-headsets-for-treating-lazy-eye/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  17. ↑ "Six Finalists Selected for VSP Vision Innovation Challenge at Vision Expo West 2025". Eyecare Business. 2025-08-07. https://eyecarebusiness.com/news/2025/six-finalists-selected-for-vsp-vision-innovation-challenge-at-vision-expo-west-2025/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  18. ↑ "VSP Vision Innovation Challenge Winners Revealed at Vision Expo West 2025". INVISION. 2025-10-06. https://invisionmag.com/vsp-vision-innovation-challenge-winners-revealed-at-vision-expo-west-2025. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Peter Žiak, Anders Holm, Juraj Halička, Peter Mojžiš, David P. Piñero (2017-06-28). "Amblyopia treatment of adults with dichoptic training using the virtual reality oculus rift head mounted display: preliminary results". BMC Ophthalmology, vol. 17, article 105. doi:10.1186/s12886-017-0501-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12886-017-0501-8. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 C. Simon-Martinez, M. P. Antoniou, W. Bouthour, D. Bavelier, D. Levi, B. T. Backus, B. Dornbos, J. J. Blaha, M. Kropp, H. Müller, M. Murray, G. Thumann, H. Steffen, P. J. Matusz (2023-05-17). "Stereoptic serious games as a visual rehabilitation tool for individuals with a residual amblyopia (AMBER trial): a protocol for a crossover randomized controlled trial". BMC Ophthalmology, vol. 23, article 220. doi:10.1186/s12886-023-02944-y. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12886-023-02944-y. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  21. ↑ S. Denkinger, M. P. Antoniou, D. Tarello, D. M. Levi, B. T. Backus, D. Bavelier, A. Chopin (2023-03-01). "The eRDS v6 Stereotest and the Vivid Vision Stereo Test: Two New Tests of Stereoscopic Vision". Translational Vision Science and Technology, vol. 12, no. 3, article 1. doi:10.1167/tvst.12.3.1. https://doi.org/10.1167/tvst.12.3.1. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 J. Ding, M. Y. Ma, H. H. Lu, B. T. Backus, D. M. Levi (2026). "Recovery of depth perception in adults with abnormal binocular vision". Vision Research, vol. 242, article 108783. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2026.108783. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2026.108783. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 Y. Mesfin, A. Kong, B. T. Backus, M. Deiner, Y. Ou, J. T. Oatts (2024-06). "Pilot study comparing a new virtual reality-based visual field test to standard perimetry in children". Journal of AAPOS, vol. 28, no. 3, article 103933. doi:10.1016/j.jaapos.2024.103933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaapos.2024.103933. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  24. ↑ A. Xu, A. Khudaverdyan, C. Shiu, M. Deiner, M. Saifee, J. J. Blaha, B. T. Backus, Y. Ou (2025-08-28). "Evaluating Increment and Decrement Stimuli Responses in Patients with Glaucoma Using Virtual Reality-Based Perimetry". Ophthalmology Science, vol. 6, no. 1, article 100929. doi:10.1016/j.xops.2025.100929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xops.2025.100929. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
  25. ↑ N. Hekmatjah, C. Chibututu, Y. Han, J. D. Keenan, J. T. Oatts (2025-01-24). "Virtual reality perimetry compared to standard automated perimetry in adults with glaucoma: A systematic review". PLOS One, vol. 20, no. 1, article e0318074. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0318074. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318074. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
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