With 3-D Blu-Rays and 3-D video games preparing to make their way into homes, what health risks can we face with this technology?

3D has been around for quite some time now, but never publicly marketed the way it is today and never enhanced the way it is with today’s technology. Health issues may have never surfaced due to the minimal amount of 3-D content available to the public until today. But just like everything else in the planet, it is bound to affect you right?

It is the year 2010, 3-D will make its mark in gaming and movies this year and many will go out and purchase a new state of the art 3-D ready TV without even considering health issues.

Wyoming News reported that many Eye Doctors argue that repeatedly asking our eyes and brains to go against their normal function has short-term effects. This can cause long-term effect on small children whose vision systems are still in development.

Others have different theories, such as Dr. Dan Perala from ‘A New Concept Optical’. Perala states that the worst-case scenario with 3-D is some irritation or tired eyes. The sensation is similar to the adjustment that comes with a new set of eyeglasses.

Perala also stated, that he hasn’t heard any concerns or questions from patients, but that could change as more 3-D movies come out and move people line up to see them.

Eye Doctors now a day may not have answers just yet. 3-D is just starting to hit homes, and perhaps that is the reason why it never developed in to anything bigger in the past. We alter our vision every day, whether you wear sunglasses or prescription glasses, the eyes are always busy. Many people report that they get headaches from watching just one movie in 3-D. Now, just imagine playing a few hours a day of video games in 3-D?

Let’s just hope that vision cases due to 3-D movies or games don’t start surfacing to the public anytime soon; because if they do, the 3-D technology may never take off the way it was intended.

http://www.tqcast.com/2010/06/09/is-3-d-gaming-bad-for-you-eyes/

Sure, and Sony will jump on this when the 3DS is in every childs stocking this Christmas. Id be more worried about brain tumors in 6 yr olds whos parents think its cute for their kids to have iphones.

Well, i guess we'll see if Natal related injuries make the papers again (not likely though).

I hope not, 3D tech seems to be the next buig advancment for games and it would be a shame to see it die so fast

I have zero interest in any of this 3d crap.  If I wanna have a 3d experience I'll go to the movies.

3D is a gimik just like the motion control, Sadly Gimmiks sell more than legitimate games. This is probally why the last good game to be released ( Rainbow6vegas1) will BE the last multiplayer game that can be played non-stop for months

no, 3d television uses the exact same processes our eyes use to see depth. There is no difference between looking at a 3d display and looking at something IRL.

The fact so many people get headaches from watching 3d tells me that its doing something not too good for you.  It may be as simple as working your eye muscles more than usual, but as far as i'm aware, if you strain your eye muscles to much, they dont recover.  Its not like  a normal muscle that gets stronger the more you use it.

Also, as long as they have the option for 2d and 3d, i dont really mind. Let people choose whatever they want.  Unless of course the graphics take a severe hit in 2d because it has to be rendered twice for the 3d...

Can you explain the headaches then?  You dont get headaches just from looking at something in real life

headaches from 3d comes from being stereoblind. Can't see the picture in the 3d-dot stereograms? You have stereoblindness and will get a headache from 3d movies.

Basically, the premise is that if you are stereoblind, you cannot determine depth based on disparity ie, the distance something moves when you switch eyes. If you look at a corner of your wall with one eye closed and then switch eyes quickly, the corner will not appear to move to much as opposed to say, looking at a finger a couple inches away from your face.

However, when you watch a 3d movie, your eyes do not determine what is close and what is far. The movie does that for you. Things up close are rendered with greater disparity, and therefore pop out. Things in the background are rendered with less disparity and don't shift from eye to eye.

My ability to render depth tells me what is foreground and what is background. The difference, is that people who are stereoblind are not getting this information as well as I am, and so background and foreground appear to be on the same plane. Basically, they are watching a movie in which the out of focus background scenery is the same distance as the in focus scenery. Because stereoblind people rely heavily on other cues such as shadowing, relative distance, and focus, when their eyes cannot bring an out of focus picture into focus, it presents a problem. This happens primarily because they are looking at the out of focus background elements in order to perceive depth which results in looking at a blurry picture for 2 hours. That would give anyone headaches.

I believe the problem is not 3D but how they they achieve it. In life if I close one eye I still see ok. But without glasses the image keeps shaking and and have different colors per eye. All this must be taxing the eyes and the brain a lot. I don't want to be a test for this technology as results will be  known only after a long period, say like 5-10 years. To me it's like testing cigarette, just because you smoke one today and you're ok doesn't mean that 20-30 years later you won't get sick. I'll care about 3D when I can see 3D without glasses and weird image shaking...