Developer warns VR headset damaged eyesight

[Strider1974]

Quote

"Just had my first eye doctor visit in three years. Now I'm very worried about my future VR use. I have a new eye convergence problem that acts like dyslexia. The doc, a headset owner, is convinced my VR use caused this. He said "these glasses we usually prescribe to 40-year-olds"

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52992675

 

The article also quotes the Association of Optometrists saying no studies have shown impact to eyesight and then goes on the talk about a study where VR is being used to improve eyesight. Overall sounds like click bait but thought I would share anyway

 

[Drama Lama]

4 minutes ago, Strider1974 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52992675

 

The article also quotes the Association of Optometrists saying no studies have shown impact to eyesight and then goes on the talk about a study where VR is being used to improve eyesight. Overall sounds like click bait but thought I would share anyway

 

.... So does any long starring at a screen too

[jagdtigger]

4 minutes ago, Drama Lama said:

.... So does any long starring at a screen too

Yep, only way to reduce negative impact if they somehow make a VR headset that can give the VR world "depth" and wider view angles so our eyes have to focus just like in the real world.

[SansVarnic]

@Strider1974 please edit your topic to meet the Posting Guidelines for Tech News.

 

 

[Rune]

Man yells at cloud

Edit: Also:

Quote

 I've always had a small level of this

what a guy.

[maartendc]

2 hours ago, Strider1974 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52992675

 

The article also quotes the Association of Optometrists saying no studies have shown impact to eyesight and then goes on the talk about a study where VR is being used to improve eyesight. Overall sounds like click bait but thought I would share anyway

 

2 hours ago, Drama Lama said:

.... So does any long starring at a screen too

I think this is different. People have been looking at screens 8 hours a day since the 80s, so the long term effects of that are known. VR technology is so new that the long term effects are unknown.

 

Especially among individuals that use VR hours a day, like in a developer environment, or someone who would use it for work.

 

It makes sense that VR would potentially cause problems. It does "trick" your eyes and brain to look at things on a screen 1 inch away from your eyeballs, and perceive it as being and object far away from you. Yet your eyes are focused on a very nearby item. I am not an optometrist or a doctor, but that sounds like an abnormal situation for your eyes to be in.

[porina]

9 minutes ago, maartendc said:

It makes sense that VR would potentially cause problems. It does "trick" your eyes and brain to look at things on a screen 1 inch away from your eyeballs, and perceive it as being and object far away from you. Yet your eyes are focused on a very nearby item. I am not an optometrist or a doctor, but that sounds like an abnormal situation for your eyes to be in.

The screen might be physically close, but the optics correct for that and make it appear further away. You can see it as like wearing glasses.

 

I do wonder if there's a "3D cinema" effect remaining though. There can still be a difference between apparent subject distance and focusing distance. This effect should be small unless the object is very close to you.

[williamcll]

Looking at any screens will cause eye damage.

 

Can't wait for mass production of cornea.

[Froody129]

Interesting. My eye doctor said VR use is fine, for as long as I want. Not that I really use it much anyway, because it feels like an intense workout for my eyes. 

 

Perhaps this user just needs to take more breaks?

[Thaldor]

One guy with earlier eyesight problems have them getting worse in 3 years and him using VR excessively might have contributed to it.

 

Ok, and the news were? That if your eyes hurt and you have problems seeing for sometime after using VR HMD, you shouldn't probably use it that long and if the symptoms continue, you probably should go to see a doctor, especially if you already have eye issues. Also it might be good to see a doctor before starting to use VR HMD, if nothing getting your IPD (distance between your pupils) correctly measured so you can set the HMD so it doesn't strain your eyes more than necessary by forcing you to cross your eyes.

 

Oh yeah, wait until you hear about these eye strainers that have caused a lot of underlying eye problems to pop into the surface. I don't remember what they are called but they are like these sheets made from thin cloth-like material from processed wood with ink on them and there can be a lot of those sheets glued together for making using them easier. Like people have first noticed they need glasses after using those, so they must be pretty dangerous and should be probably banned to some scale.

[HarryNyquist]

23 minutes ago, Thaldor said:

One guy with earlier eyesight problems have them getting worse in 3 years and him using VR excessively might have contributed to it.

 

Ok, and the news were?

That's how clickbait works. And it did work, didn't it? We all looked at it.

 

Wait, we all looked at it... oh no...

[BuckGup]

I talked to my eye doctor and they said there is nothing to worry about. A case study with causation vs correlation doesn't prove jack shit

[MageTank]

Take it for what you will, but my brother has been using VR since its release and has used every VR headset out on the market for what I would consider "unhealthy" amounts of gameplay and still has perfect vision, the only person in my immediate family that does not need glasses. 

 

Now it's entirely possible that different people react differently, but I'd hesitate to automatically attribute VR headsets to failing vision without a larger sample size to test with. My vision failed me long before I got into computers and I hardly watched TV as a kid, so genetics likely screwed me more than anything I could have done to harm my vision. My same brother was the one that had his face inches away from the TV during Pokemon and to this day has near perfect vision despite sitting in front of a large ultrawide monitor coding throughout the day.

[wanderingfool2]

Until there is an actual study on this, I am not really putting any weight on this.

Reasons

1) Guy originally had a minor form of the condition (3 years earlier)

2) Case study of one person

3) "Usually prescribe to 40 year olds" (Doesn't really mean much, hairloss happens when you are older...except there are people who start out having hair loss in their high school years)

 

Until there is more research, I wouldn't put any weight on a single person's testimony

[Orangeator]

Yeah, I am not to concerned over this... Aren't the lenses in the headset suppose to help assist your eyes in focusing on the screens properly?

[porina]

2 hours ago, Orangeator said:

Aren't the lenses in the headset suppose to help assist your eyes in focusing on the screens properly?

Yes. Put something right in front of your face at a VR display type distance. Can you even focus on it at all? Doubt it. The lenses bend the light so the focus becomes some distance away where the eye can focus. The only potential problem I mentioned earlier is that all things you see in VR are in focus at the same distance, yet the parallax effects make them appear to be at different distances. IRL you'd have different focus with different distances.

[wanderingfool2]

19 minutes ago, porina said:

Yes. Put something right in front of your face at a VR display type distance. Can you even focus on it at all? Doubt it. The lenses bend the light so the focus becomes some distance away where the eye can focus. The only potential problem I mentioned earlier is that all things you see in VR are in focus at the same distance, yet the parallax effects make them appear to be at different distances. IRL you'd have different focus with different distances.

With your eyes focusing on the same level, it could potentially cause eyestrain (as your muscles in your eye are focusing at the same distance for an extended period of time)

[5x5]

The proximity of the light emitting diodes to the eyes and retina is a definite concern. I suspect some countries are likely to ban or heavily restrict VR and that may not be a bad call to some extent. VR degrades eyesight faster than normal LED LCDs and further studies are warranted

[RejZoR]

14 hours ago, Drama Lama said:

.... So does any long starring at a screen too

Not exactly. With external displays (monitors and TV's), fixed distance is the issue which causes stiffness of the lens and weakness of eye muscles that prevents proper focusing over time. Your eyes still use same focal point which is called "eye convergence". As you look at things, both eyes move slightly inwards to maintain focus.

 

With VR glasses, the displays are fooling you into thinking you're looking at a single focal point where you're in reality observing two separate focal points, one for each eye with adjustment to fool your brain into thinking you have a "stereo" or "3D" vision.

 

Convergence insufficiency is when both eyes don't focus properly on a single object that you're trying to track because you've been "training" them for so long not to do that using VR headsets. I actually never thought about this, but hearing it now, it actually makes sense. And to make matters worse, fixed distance is moved even closer than there was with external displays like monitors. Auch.

[rawrdaysgoby]

Ehhhh, no one should really be surprised at all...

[Rolling2405]

23 hours ago, Strider1974 said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52992675

 

The article also quotes the Association of Optometrists saying no studies have shown impact to eyesight and then goes on the talk about a study where VR is being used to improve eyesight. Overall sounds like click bait but thought I would share anyway

 

 

23 hours ago, Drama Lama said:

.... So does any long starring at a screen too

I thought VR was supposed to be particularly bad for your eyes because it’s so close to your eyes. That’s why you are supposed to do VR for only 30 minutes to a hour 

[Arika]

10 hours ago, 5x5 said:

The proximity of the light emitting diodes to the eyes and retina is a definite concern. I suspect some countries are likely to ban or heavily restrict VR and that may not be a bad call to some extent. VR degrades eyesight faster than normal LED LCDs and further studies are warranted

I don't know, I've seen people use their phones for hours and hours basically right next to their face. Don't think they are going to ban smart phones. 

[5x5]

15 minutes ago, Arika S said:

I don't know, I've seen people use their phones for hours and hours basically right next to their face. Don't think they are going to ban smart phones. 

There are already heavy regulations on phones including a ban of phones in most schools in quite a few countries

[Arika]

39 minutes ago, 5x5 said:

There are already heavy regulations on phones including a ban of phones in most schools in quite a few countries

not for reasons of health. they are banned in school because they dont want kids cheating or being distracted when they are supposed to be learning, which is why i think i was a massive mistake to allow laptops in school

[5x5]

18 minutes ago, Arika S said:

not for reasons of health. they are banned in school because they dont want kids cheating or being distracted when they are supposed to be learning, which is why i think i was a massive mistake to allow laptops in school

I guess it varies by country but here the reasons cited were indeed eyesight and brain functionality being affected in younger students. Basically, being glued to Facebook at a young age causes increased stupidity and reduced cognitive ability. Who knew