Active Shutter 3D Glasses Hacked to Treat Amblyopia

Lazy eye, formally known as amblyopia, is a disorder that affects around 3% of the population. It’s normally treated by atropine drops, or covering the stronger eye with an eyepatch for long periods of time. While nominally effective, this treatment doesn’t allow eyes to synchronize correctly. An alternative treatment which has experienced some promising results is to occlude the stronger eye rapidly using electronic circuitry.

In order to get a jump on this type of treatment, hacker “rarinn” decided to mod a pair of active shutter-style 3D glasses to occlude (cover) one eye in quick succession. While expensive several years ago, these glasses can now be found rather cheaply, and those implemented in this project were purchased used for $5, making this a very accessible hack.

With glasses in hand, they were then disassembled, and hacked for control via an ATtiny13 chip. The first device, outlined here, had a few drawbacks, so it was upgraded with switching transistors and a voltage multiplier in the second revision.

While this could help treat amblyopia, naturally, you should use caution with any DIY medical device. The write-ups do warn of potential adverse effects, including the possibility of seizures, so it’s probably a good idea to consult with a doctor before going down this path!