The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) said on Monday that it designated Nunaps’ virtual reality (VR)-based visual stimulation software as the nation’s 33rd innovative medical device.

VIVID Brain is the first product in Korea to improve visual impairment caused by brain damage. Accordingly, it was recognized for its innovation and differentiation of the technology by applying a new mechanism of action to improve visual impairment, the ministry said.

Nunaps' VR device has already completed discovery studies and is currently undergoing proof-of-concept studies to obtain authorization in Korea to help treat patients with visual field disorders linked to the brain.

The product improves visual impairment by enhancing brain plasticity and providing visual perception training with customized visual stimulus locations. The difficulty level is adjusted according to the user's training results. In particular, it improves the perception of stimuli through repeated training to enhance brain plasticity instead of the existing sensory compensation and substitution techniques used to treat visual field disorders caused by brain diseases.

The compensation technique applies a training method that consciously turns the eyeball to the side of the visual field that is impaired. Meanwhile, substitution uses refracting visual information from the part of the eye with visual impairment to the part without visual impairment using a prism.

Food and Drug Safety Minister Oh Yu-kyoung said that the government would continue to provide close support for the rapid commercialization of innovative medical technologies to expand treatment opportunities for the public and help establish Korea as a global center for bio-digital health.