Should I worry about Binocular Dysphoria?

OK, so 3D Television, Cinema and Games are coming fast, but are there any side effects to hours of entertainment by this new medium?

If you’ve read anything about the new wonders of 3D entertainment, you may have come across the term “Binocular Dysphoria”. Translated literally, it means a discomfort in the eyes and relates to your ability to judge depth being impaired. Most commonly this may occur as you “re-adjust” back to reality after viewing a 3D film, for example.

When you watch a 3D display you are only using one technique to judge depth, Parallax. However, in everyday life, you judge depth by other methods, sound, balance, etc. The worry is that you may continue to only use parallax when you re-enter the “real world”.

But what does it really mean for the majority of us film/tv/games fans? Are we going to be seen running from the cinema holding our eyes into their sockets calling out for the nearest Claim Lawyer after watching 3 hours of Avatar? Will there be a demolition derby in the car park because we are longer able to judge the distance around our cars?

Research has been done in this area by Mark Pesce in the 1990’s for SEGA when they were developing a virtual reality helmet for their Genesis console. The result of this work, Mark claims, forced SEGA to withdraw the VR console and it never saw the light of day.

That has not stopped games companies from revisiting the 3D platform years later, and over the next 12 months you will begin to see more 3D games enter the market.

The main unquantifiable risk appears to lay in the area of compulsive games playing. Many kids, teenagers, adults even, spend hours playing online video games. This can sometimes involve up to (and beyond) 5 hours of continual games playing. It’s this form of constant exposure which could potentially lead to problems for a predisposed group of individuals.

As with any new technology, there is always a down side. When cars were invented there were hundreds, if not thousands of gruesome accidents taking place almost daily. But did this stop people from wanting a car? Not at all! It’s popularity grew exponentially because we were willing to accept the risks and we needed the benefits it gave us.

3D displays, whether they are at the cinema or on your TV screen are inherently safe if used sensibly and health risks in the form of Binocular Dysphoria appear to only affect a minority of the population.

How many times have you seen a message at the beginning of a film saying “This film includes flashing imagery that may cause problems to people suffering from photosensitive epilepsy.”

It may only be a matter of time before precautionary messages, such as this, appear before your favourite 3D production.

source: http://www.futuredimensions.net/2010/03/should-i-worry-about-binocular-dysphoria/