Re: Actualized Virtual Boy

[P3D John W Roberts <roberts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 01:38:01 -0500
>From: P3D Harold Baize  <HAROLD@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: Actualized Virtual Boy

>One last thing,  and I think we may have discussed this when the
>V-B was introduced, but it comes with a warning that states that
>the game "MUST NOT be used by children under the age of seven (7)
>years. Artificial stereo vision displays may not be safe for such
>children and may cause serious, permanent damage to their vision."

>Note, the caps are from the warning.
>Is this just Nintendo's way of avoiding nusance law suits or is
>there some research on the effects of stereo displays that we
>don't know about. It's hard to imagine it causing "serious"
>and "permanent" damage!

The concern is that if used inappropriately, virtual reality systems could
cause the brain to wire up extra "signal paths" in the visual system that
don't belong there, which could cause confusion when not using the system -
falling down, walking into walls, loss of stereo perception, etc. There
was a paper on the subject at SID '95. Analogous problems have been observed
in cases of "phantom limbs", etc., so it's within the general scope of
what's known about the functioning of the brain.

It's probably a good idea to heed the warnings until more is known on the
subject.

John R


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