Hardware 3DS, Dangerous for health?

[metamaster]

Virtual reality headsets use the same technique for displaying 3D as we find in movies or 3D television sets - parallax. They project a slightly different image to each one of your eyes, and from that difference, your brain creates the illusion of depth. That sounds fine, until you realize just how complicated human depth perception really is. The Wikipedia entry on depth perception (an excellent read) lists ten different cues that your brain uses to figure out exactly how far away something is. Parallax is just one of them. Since the various movie and television display technologies only offer parallax-based depth cues, your brain basically has to ignore several other cues while you're immersed in the world of Avatar. This is why the 3D of films doesn't feel quite right. Basically, you're fighting with your own brain, which is getting a bit confused. It's got some cues to give it a sense of depth, but it's missing others. Eventually your brain just starts ignoring the other cues.

That's the problem. When the movie's over, and you take your glasses off, your brain is still ignoring all those depth perception cues. It'll come back to normal, eventually. Some people will snap right back. In others, it might take a few hours. This condition, known as 'binocular dysphoria', is the price you pay for cheating your brain into believing the illusion of 3D. Until someone invents some other form of 3D projection (many have tried, no one has really succeeded), binocular dysphoria will be part of the experience.

Video games are one of the great distractions of youth. Children can play them for hours every day, and our testers realized that children - with their highly malleable nervous systems - could potentially suffer permanent damage from regular and extensive exposure to a system which created binocular dysphoria in its users.

All of this is rolling forward without any thought to the potential health hazards of continuous, long-term exposure to 3D. None of the television manufacturers have done any health & safety testing around this. They must believe that if it's safe enough for the cinema, it's fine for the living room. But that's simply not the case. Getting a few hours every few weeks is nothing like getting a few hours, every single day.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2813511.htm

Loss of 3D vision is a kind of high price to pay for the 3DS (or other consoles/TVs with 3Dscreens) What do you guys think? (Replace children and youth in the before-last paragraph by Tempers for an even bigger impression

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[Blaze163]

I have no sense of depth perception anyway (thanks to mother smacking me in the eye with a plate) so I should be fine.

 

[basher11]

lol im still getting the 3DS.

 

[evandixon]

I don't buy it....

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

The Wikipedia entry on depth perception

No longer professional, don't care. Still getting a 3DS.

 

[Magmorph]

It looks like they are making these claims with absolutely no evidence backing it up.

 

[BobTheJoeBob]

^This

They have nothing to backup their statement that 3DS will damage children. Also, children should have control and know when to stop playing, I do.

 

[The Pi]

"they" have to ruin everything don't they?

 

[metamaster]

I only put part of the topic, other parts (important) are in the source:

This doesn't matter too much if you're going to see a movie in the theatre - though it could lead to a few prangs in the parking lot afterward - but it does matter hugely if it's something you'll be exposed to for hours a day, every day, via your television set. Your brain is likely to become so confused about depth cues that you'll be suffering from a persistent form of binocular dysphoria. That's what the testers told Sega, and that's why the Sega VR system - which had been announced with great fanfare - never made it to market.

read the last part

 

[murkurie]

According the to news,all video games and eletronics seems to be bad. there just easy targets

 

[KingVamp]

Yep still getting the 3DS, I have no problems with 3D .

 

[Infinite Zero]

You never know. Sony might have ... you know...

 

[acturus]

i bet eventually your brain will figure out the difference and it will be able to switch between 'binocular dysphoria' and normal mode by pressing X

 

[Midna]

Hey, look up the wiki article on binocular dysphoria. 2/5 of its sources are from the author of this article.

 

[metamaster]

Hey, look up the wiki article on binocular dysphoria. 2/5 of its sources arte from the author of this article.

One of the two articles in the sources IS the one I mentioned.

 

[tk_saturn]

If it really bothers you, you can always turn 3D off on the 3DS.

I've no doubt that it will cause some people issues with their vision, as some people will play it much longer than they should. Even a DS can cause vision issues if youy play it long enough eithout taking a break, there's a health warning screen on the DS for a reason. Even the GameCube has one http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/manuals/p...gcn_english.jsp There's normally a guide line that you should take 15mins break every hour. So the 3DS isn't anything new.

3D TV is another kettle of fish. Samsung for example do include a health warning with their 3D TV's, but I believe that's to dowith the flicker from teh active shutter glasses.

 

[metamaster]

With a 3D screen, the effect is way bigger. So the guild lines would be something like: Take a 30 minute break every 30 minutes?
Anyways, not a lot of people read the warnings, or even if they do, they usually don't respect them (I know I don't)

 

[tk_saturn]

There are 2 screens on the 3DS, only one of which is 3D. So it's likely your eyes will be focusing in and out of 3D, so I expect 15mins every hour will be fine.

I imagine there will be some health warnings in the 3DS/ game manuals specific to 3D. These Sharp 3D Parallax Barrier screens have been around since 2004, so there should be enough data on them for Nintendo to be confident they aren't going to end up with a swarm of court cases. Of course they haven't really been used on such a large scale as the 3DS, and 3D TVs still aren't selling well (atleast in the Europe, only 25000 last month http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10446419.stm)

 

[juggernaut911]

Oh look, the author is the Sony CEO.

 

[tk_saturn]

To some extent the article is BS anyway.

All of this is rolling forward without any thought to the potential health hazards of continuous, long-term exposure to 3D. None of the television manufacturers have done any health & safety testing around this. They must believe that if it's safe enough for the cinema, it's fine for the living room. But that's simply not the case. Getting a few hours every few weeks is nothing like getting a few hours, every single day.

Then why do 3D Samsung TV's come with a health warning?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/news...th-warning.html

Which they appear to want to tone down after doing more testing http://www.whathifi.com/news/Samsung-backt...watching-3D-TV/

Same goes for LG http://hcc.techradar.com/blogs/team-hcc/lg...l-same-27-04-10