I’ve read mixed things about the potential risk for long term eye damage when using HMDs, can anyone clear some things up?
For starters, should we be concerned that the Pimax8k uses LCD (which I heard was worse for your eyes) instead of OLED?
If true, I believe there is some way to protect against any potential eye damage (blue light filter?). The ability to manually decrease the brightness would be a nice feature too (for longer sessions).
I just think ALL of the HMD manufacturers could do a better job communicating exactly what the risks (if any) of staring at these screens are. I mean, have there been any real studies done on the long term effects of holding a ultra bright screen up to your face for hours at a time?
Even being outdoors causes long term aging of the eyes, as the sun is one of the biggest offenders of blue light emission. Eat your carrots. You’ll be okay.
Truth its hard to say with the field being so new. Blue light is one factor that pimax & others have optimized displays to reduce blue light emissioms. However blue light has many sources we are exposed to both natural & artificial.
I don’t think just saying “eat carrots you’ll be fine” is gonna fly with most consumers. That’s like saying “these brand new untested cigarettes probably won’t harm you”.
As others have said, this field is brand new and unstudied. Until that changes, people are going to be nervous about holding a screen that close to their eyes for prolonged periods (If developers do their job, people will want to remain in VR for HOURS).
Just curious though, why is LCD supposed to be so much worse than OLED (for your eyes)?
Ok so if the only danger is the blue light, isn’t it possible to give users the option to control that in software? I’m pretty sure that’s all f.lux (wonderful program) does right?
Huh… lots of strange assumptions. Firstly, LCDs aren’t a light source, they use a backlight. Which on modern displays is typically LEDs. The difference from the AMOLED displays is that the backlight is white, while the individual OLEDs are red, green or blue. White LEDs can be built with UV+phosphor, as fluorescent lights which LCDs used before LEDs replaced them are. However, UV is an extremely broad term; LEDs produce a narrow band and for white LEDs, low energy UV (also described as near or UVA) is used. The proportion that remains, not having hit the phosphor and having made it through all the optics, is far below the level you would find in daylight, proportionally. And these “extremely bright” displays aren’t blinding, so they’re weaker than the typical flashlights… which have much less optical filtering. Also, a yellow piece of plastic is simply a filter. It will absorb some blue light, which doesn’t brighten (well, it might fluoresce, but that’s going to kill any contrast) or sharpen anything. The main difference is that we have hormonal reactions to light spectra; less blue light, proportionally, prepares your body for sleep. What a filter does to UV has little to do with its visible colour, but higher frequencies are more easily absorbed; anything fluorescent will absorb UV, and many things that aren’t obvious, including ordinary glass. The basic fact is that it’s much easier to keep fearmongering going when you’re not looking at relevant data.
That said, risks do exist. Mainly those of static posture; your eyes may get a lack of exercise from focusing at a static distance, and the vergence may be tuned wrong if the optics aren’t configured right. These are effects you’d also get using the wrong glasses (and you recover from them about as quick as you recover from putting glasses on). The ability to affect these distinctly has been used to treat lazy eye. Another risk is that of flickering lights; 60Hz like the Pimax 4K or classic TVs (european ones are even 50Hz) is really too low (the new models should up that to 75Hz or 90Hz). VR headsets are specifically flickering; that’s what low persistence is. That said, not everyone is as susceptible to that issue. It’s the only actual sensitivity that has been tied to the “electromagnetic hypersensitivity” myth though.
Note that none of these are new. Overall, current display equipment is far safer than CRTs (which, besides flickering, also tended to cause electrostatic charge which would bombard your face with airborne dust), but if you want to be really picky, stay away from VR and get a fully persistent backlight monitor (not PWM). If you do have that much of an issue you’ll notice it on ordinary lighting occasionally, particularly fluorescents.
The assumptions are what the companies have promoted. Lol. Probably to drive sales. The main research though has to do i beleive with office staff who spend hours staring at monitors & may have damaged their eyes as a result.