- AmblyoBye
- 🎯 Purpose
- 🛠️ Supported Devices
- 🛠️ Features
- 📷 Screenshots
- 🎮 Controls
- 🏗️ Building the Project
- 📁 Installation & Setup
- 📚 Research Background
- 👁️ Personal Experience
⚠️ Disclaimer- Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
- 🔬 Reference and Research papers used
- 📞 Contact Support and Research Collaboration
AmblyoBye is a virtual reality (VR) application designed to assist in the treatment of amblyopia (commonly known as "lazy eye") through dichoptic movie viewing, developed using Unity 6000.2.11f1 with the OpenXR standard, originally built with Meta Quest 2/3 in mind. AmblyoBye offers an engaging and passive therapeutic experience aimed at improving visual acuity in individuals with amblyopia, and is also playable on a Windows PC, either standalone or streamed to any OpenXR-compatible headset (Quest Link/Air Link, Virtual Desktop, SteamVR, etc.).
AmblyoBye is inspired by research indicating that dichoptic movie viewing can enhance visual function in amblyopic patients, even beyond the critical period of visual development.
Studies have shown that presenting different images to each eye can promote binocular vision and reduce suppression of the amblyopic eye (source).
- Meta Oculus Quest 2 (https://www.meta.com/quest/products/quest-2/)
- Meta Oculus Quest 3 (https://www.meta.com/quest/quest-3/)
- Any other Android-based OpenXR headset (min. Android 8.1 / API level 27)
- Windows PC, running the Standalone build directly or streamed to any OpenXR-capable headset via Quest Link/Air Link, Virtual Desktop, SteamVR, or the equivalent streaming tool for your headset (commonly referred to as "PCVR")
ℹ️ AmblyoBye uses Unity's OpenXR plug-in (not a vendor-specific SDK), so controller input (thumbstick click to toggle the settings panel) works with any headset exposing a standard OpenXR controller binding.
- Dichoptic Movie Playback: Presents separate images to each eye to stimulate binocular vision.
- User-Friendly Interface: Simple controls for selecting and playing therapeutic movies.
- Customizable Settings: Adjust visual parameters to suit individual therapy needs.
- Progress Tracking: Monitor viewing time and session history.
| Left Eye View | Right Eye View |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Settings Screen
Usage Statistics Screen
-
Left or Right Thumbstick Press (click)
➤ Toggles the Settings Panel on or off. Use this to show or hide the control sliders during movie playback. -
Right Trigger Drag and Drop while on the movie panel
➤ Use this to move the movie screen farther or closer to the eyes -
Right Trigger Click on movie panel
➤ Use this to pause/start the movie -
Right Trigger Drag and Drop on video progress slider
➤ Use this to go ahead/behind of the movie timeframe
When the settings panel is visible (via thumbstick press), you can adjust the following:
-
✂️ Eye supress bias (Slider)
➤ Adjusts the infill percentage of the blobs. You can see this as a bias setting.- 0 -> Full suppresion on the left eye,
- 0-100 -> Variable supression. Values less than 0.5 supress the left eye. Values more than 0.5 supress the right eye
- 100 -> Full supression on the right eye E.g. For my left eye amblyopia I used a value of 0.65 to supress the right eye a bit, and let my left eye see more. If you have right eye amblyobia, you can use values less than 0.5
-
🔘 Blob Scale (Slider)
➤ Adjusts the size of the blob-shaped contrast mask used in the vision therapy -
🌫️ Blob Color (Slider)
➤ Sets how dark or light the background appears in the suppressed eye.- 0 -> Black
- 0 - 100 -> Grey
- 100 -> White
-
⏱️ Blob Change Time (Slider)
➤ Controls how often the blob mask changes position (in seconds). More frequent changes may stimulate visual processing more effectively. -
🎞️ Movie Selector (Dropdown List)
➤ Choose which movie to watch from your loaded videos. -
🗑️ Delete Movie (Button)
➤ Removes the selected video from your library.
Suggested starting settings that you can play around:
- Eye supress bias: 0.5
- Blob scale : 1
- Blob color 70
- Blob time 5
Requires Unity 6000.2.11f1 with Android Build Support installed.
Android APK
File > Build Profiles→ select Android → Switch Platform- Untick Build App Bundle (Google Play)
- Build → pick an output folder → produces
AmblyoBye.apk
Windows Standalone (PCVR)
File > Build Profiles→ select Windows → Switch Platform- Build → pick an output folder → produces
AmblyoBye.exe+AmblyoBye_Data\
- Download AmblyoBye-X.Y.apk from the releases or compile the project on your machine
- Enable "Unknown Sources" on Meta Quest 3
- Install APK using SideQuest or ADB
Open the AmblyoBye application once to allow it to create the necessary directory structure.
AmblyoBye supports the following video formats(must be compliant with Meta Quest3 video codecs):
.asf, .avi, .dv, .m4v, .mp4, .mov, .mpg, .mpeg, .ogv, .vp8, .webm, .wmv
On your computer, download movies and use HandBrake 1.9.0 (or similar video converting tools) to convert your movies to a format that can be used by Quest3 and Unity:
- Format: MP4 (H.264 codec)
- Frame Rate: 30 fps
- Audio: AAC
- Preset: Fast 1080p30 (or a quality preset of your choice)
⚠️ Note: While various encodings are supported, H.264 has been found to work best.
Transfer your converted movies to the following directory on your Quest 3 device:
Quest 3\Internal shared storage\Android\data\com.amblyobye.amblyobye\Movies
After adding movies, reopen AmblyoBye.
Navigate to the "Movie List" category to select and play your movie from the dropdown list.
AmblyoBye can also run as a Windows Standalone build, either played directly on your monitor or streamed to any OpenXR-compatible headset:
-
Build the project for the Windows Standalone platform (
File > Build Profilesin Unity — see Building the Project), or download a PC release if available. -
Install and start your headset's streaming/runtime software before launching AmblyoBye, e.g.:
- Meta Quest: Oculus PC app (Quest Link / Air Link)
- Any OpenXR headset: Virtual Desktop, SteamVR, or the manufacturer's own streaming assistant
-
Set the streaming software's runtime as the active OpenXR Runtime (usually configurable from the runtime's own settings app), then launch
AmblyoBye.exe. -
On Windows, movies, settings, and usage statistics are all stored next to
AmblyoBye.exe, keeping the install fully self-contained and portable. These folders (Movies,Settings,Stats) are created automatically the first time you run AmblyoBye — you don't need to create them yourself. The folder structure looks like this:<the folder you built/extracted to>\ ├── AmblyoBye.exe ├── AmblyoBye_Data\ (Unity engine/game data - do not modify) ├── UnityCrashHandler64.exe ├── ... (other Unity runtime files) ├── Movies\ <- put your converted movies here │ └── YourMovie.mp4 ├── Settings\ <- app settings (DichopticMovieSettings.cfg) └── Stats\ <- usage history (YYYY\MM.csv)After the first launch, copy your converted movies into the
Moviesfolder, following the same format guidance as steps 3-4 above. -
No sound?
- Set your headset's audio device (e.g. "Oculus Virtual Audio Device") as the Windows default before launching AmblyoBye.
- Check Windows isn't muted, and check Volume Mixer for
AmblyoBye.exe. - Movie silent but UI clicks work? Filename has
Ddp5.1/Dd+5.1(Dolby Digital Plus) — install "Dolby Digital Plus decoder for PC OEMs" (Microsoft Store), or re-encode audio to AAC via HandBrake.
-
Relaunch AmblyoBye and select your movie from the "Movie List" dropdown, same as on Quest.
The development of AmblyoBye is grounded in research exploring the efficacy of dichoptic treatments for amblyopia.
Notably, a study titled "Contribution of Short-Time Occlusion of the Amblyopic Eye to a Passive Dichoptic Video Treatment for Amblyopia beyond the Critical Period" demonstrated that dichoptic movie viewing could lead to significant improvements in visual acuity for individuals with amblyopia.
Read the full study
As the developer of AmblyoBye(i am a merely software developer), I also suffer from amblyopia.
At the age of 27, my vision in the amblyopic eye was as low as 0.05 visual acuity (VA).
Through a year of intermittent patching(2hr of patching the BAD eye, as suggested per DOI: 10.1113/JP270950) combined with regular use of AmblyoBye, I was able to improve my vision to 0.3-0.4 VA — a meaningful and motivating personal achievement that drives this project's continued development.
This experience has shown me firsthand that visual improvement is still possible well into adulthood with the right tools and persistence.
AmblyoBye is intended for use under the guidance of a qualified eye care professional.
It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Improving your vision while having strabismus might lead to Diplopia. Please take that into consideration.
Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Sauvan, L., Stolowy, N., Denis, D., Matonti, F., Chavane, F., Hess, R. F., & Reynaud, A. (2019).
Contribution of Short-Time Occlusion of the Amblyopic Eye to a Passive Dichoptic Video Treatment for Amblyopia beyond the Critical Period.
Neural Plasticity, 2019. DOI: 10.1155/2019/6208414
S. Boniquet-Sanchez, N. Sabater-Cruz (2019).
Current Management of Amblyopia with New Technologies for Binocular Treatment
DOI: 10.3390/vision5020031
C. Lunghi, M. Berchicci, M. Concetta Morrone, F. Di Russo (2015).
Short-term monocular deprivation alters early components of visual evoked potentials
DOI: 10.1113/JP270950
Email✉️ : amblyobye@gmail.com