Various Uses

In general the use of pinhole glasses is two fold: as a developmental tool in vision improvement, and as a straightforward substitute for glasses in certain situations.

They can be freely used as a substitute for glasses in any situation where they are found to give adequate vision, although not for driving or any other potentially hazardous activity. Generally they will be easier to use in good light than poor. If it possible to use them for visually static tasks like TV and computer use they are much preferable to glasses since they encourage more mobility in the eyes, but not everyone finds this feasible.

In Bates or other vision improvement work it may be very good to try various practices, such as swings and chart exercises, alternately using the pinholes and unaided, rather than using the pinholes exclusively. It has been found, by myself and others, that relaxed 'central fixation' practice with a test card using rather large holes is followed by a definite improvement in the unaided acuity. As well as using the glasses in the conventional way, a sheet of the mesh, or similar material can be used as a multi-directional shifter, to hold in front of the eyes and move rapidly in all directions while looking through: this has a very powerfully stimulating effect on the saccades. This has been confirmed by a leading manufacturer of perforated plastics who has experience of staff operating machines which produce perforated plastic complaining of strain and dizziness from watching the material roll by, but also finding subsequently that their vision is improved!

One possible drawback of the multiple pinhole array is that it will often be impossible for the two central sightlines of a pcrson's cycs to be perfectly aligned on a single object through two corresponding holes. This makes it impossible to have normal binocular vision with normal convergence and probably accounts for many of the experiences of strain and headache reported by a few users. Many versions of the 'glasses', however, come with removable lenses and this can be very helpful. If one of the lenses is removed, the relatively clear vision from the 'pinholed' eye can be integrated with the unobstructed field of the other, avoiding the convergence problem and giving rather good vision overall. If this is done for short periods alternating the eyes it may also encourage better vision in the unassisted one. Work with alternate single eyes is used a great deal in the Bates Method, commonly using 'patching glasses' with a blacked-out 'lens'. This can be enhanced by having one eye blacked out and the other 'pinholed'.

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