HMD VR: Is it safe?
Posted: Sun Nov 09, 2014 5:07 am
I was all in for HMD VR for years but I begin to have some doubts now after having read in particular some recent reports.
According to specialists, our visual system is not mature until 12 or 13 year old! It means in particular that the system convergence/accommodation is not completely functional until this age.
Exposing children or even teens to 3D could mean disastrous effects on their vision (even if their retina is fully functional). Specialists advise not to expose teens until 13 years to 3D.
And now, when somebody tells me it's bad for children but completely okay for adults, I usually have some doubts.
What happens when we watch something in VR HMD?
Your eyes accommodate on the screen that it sees: thanks to the lens, the screen is perceived at infinity by your eyes, so no accommodation.
BUT: your brain perceives in the virtual environment a close object for example. Convergence happens, there's an unconscious squint of the eyes.
The problem is this dissonance between accommodation/convergence, artificially created by virtual glasses. In "real" 3D, accomodation/convergence happens in the same time. It seems to be some trivial thing, but to do that, our brain and visual system needs YEARS of learning (about 13 years).
I agree that no specialists are (for the moment) saying that virtual 3D is bad for adults. Neither that it's safe because they know for the moment nothing about it. It's just that thinking about what they say now about children (AND teens), I begin to be not very serene about exposing myself to this effect.
Usually I'd prefer not to be some guinea pig for the companies (or for Dr Szell...)
What do you think?
According to specialists, our visual system is not mature until 12 or 13 year old! It means in particular that the system convergence/accommodation is not completely functional until this age.
Exposing children or even teens to 3D could mean disastrous effects on their vision (even if their retina is fully functional). Specialists advise not to expose teens until 13 years to 3D.
And now, when somebody tells me it's bad for children but completely okay for adults, I usually have some doubts.
What happens when we watch something in VR HMD?
Your eyes accommodate on the screen that it sees: thanks to the lens, the screen is perceived at infinity by your eyes, so no accommodation.
BUT: your brain perceives in the virtual environment a close object for example. Convergence happens, there's an unconscious squint of the eyes.
The problem is this dissonance between accommodation/convergence, artificially created by virtual glasses. In "real" 3D, accomodation/convergence happens in the same time. It seems to be some trivial thing, but to do that, our brain and visual system needs YEARS of learning (about 13 years).
I agree that no specialists are (for the moment) saying that virtual 3D is bad for adults. Neither that it's safe because they know for the moment nothing about it. It's just that thinking about what they say now about children (AND teens), I begin to be not very serene about exposing myself to this effect.
Usually I'd prefer not to be some guinea pig for the companies (or for Dr Szell...)
What do you think?