Gadgetory

as we reach our mid-40s doctors say our eyes gradually weaken just like other muscles what if we could improve our eyesight to the point of not needing glasses by exercising our eyes that's the aim of a handful of mobile apps like glasses off and Ulta mice that present games and exercises to retrain the way the brain interprets images we can potentially improve the image processing unit in our brain to do a much better interpretation of whatever visual image coming in from the eyes glasses off is a free download but access to the program cost $60 shy Novik claims when the app is used correctly 90% of users will no longer need to wear their reading glasses play the game three times a week 15 minutes each time for approximately three months and then you reach in most cases the status of glasses off you don't you're really independent of reading glasses at that point in time you are I have the option to move to the maintenance stage medical experts say there is some validity in these claims as the brain can be continually improved with practice I think that's what these apps really are talking about is is not so much improving the eye but improving the brain because the brain is actually as are more important than the eye in terms of developing high levels of visual function at Stanford University researchers have developed their own vision related app called sight book it offers a series of vision tests a patient can do at home in order to help diagnose problems this is going to be in very much the way that we all have a lot of our care rendered in the future and I don't mean 20 years from now I mean in the next year or two or three or five years giving us yet another reason to keep looking at our screens in San Francisco I'm Kara Tsuboi cnet.com for CBS News