VR 극장이 좋아질수록, 남는 질문 하나

As VR theaters become more popular, a lingering question arises: is the extended viewing time a mere consumption of time, or can it be considered training? From the perspective of developers, this news is intriguing because the environment is treated as one of the platform layers. The theater environment, runner redesign, and media playback pipeline are all issues that sit atop the application layer, which sits on top of the rendering stack and input layer.

Horizon OS makes long viewing a first-class citizen, but what can be done on top of it? One characteristic of Meta Quest hardware that is often overlooked is its architectural trait of transmitting different frames to each eye. Most media apps simply use this stereoscopic display for depth. However, what if the same video, with two different processed results, were sent to each eye as a channel?

This concept was put into practice by Amblyotube, a product developed by Seven Sports for Meta Quest to provide visual therapy and attention training. The pipeline structure involves a single frame with two views, where the Dominant Eye Shader applies adjustable blur, contrast, brightness, gamma, and opacity filters to the dominant eye, while the Lazy Eye Sharpener selectively sharpens people (faces and bodies) in the Amblyotube view.

Controlled Flicker adds rhythmic flicker to target attention, and Binocular Fusion uses different colors and patterns to merge the visual signals in the amblyopic eye. The adjustable settings, including calibration, severity levels, and logMAR eye tests, ensure accurate training. The user interface includes a floating panel for control, integration with YouTube search and offline catalog, standard playback controls, and a room view for pass-through mode.

Amblyotube is a supplementary visual training tool for amblyopia, not a diagnostic or therapeutic device. It is recommended for users 13 and older, with a daily session limit of 30-40 minutes.