Virtual reality seems to be gaining attention as promising new technology. Last year The Gear VR headset unit sold out over the holidays. Despite growing proclamations that 2016 will be "The Year of VR," there has been a troubling lack of focus on the health and safety risks associated with strapping a large piece of digital equipment so closes to your eyes. Let’s define the technology and then offer the pros and cons to date
What is Virtual and Augmented Reality? (VR, AR)
Virtual reality involves complete immersion in a fully imagined environment (think of a 360-degree video game).
Augmented reality involves a see-through headset that allows users to simultaneously interact with their actual physical environment in the real world (think of product diagrams for repair technicians).
The Pros
The promise of virtual reality (VR) headsets is that they could transform how we learn, work, play and get entertained. It has been suggested that this breakthrough might even extend long-term human memory by creating new neural pathways and connections in the brain.
The Cons
As VR/AR become increasingly common in many areas from our entertainment world, medical use, and the military we have to ask, how does VR/AR affect the brain? In gathering information, it was determined that most scientist just do not know and therefore, there is reason for caution as such profound advances come with equally serious threats to our physical and emotional well-being.
One major manufacturer of VR/AR Samsung warns its users of Gear VR to stop immediately if they experience seizures, loss of awareness, eye strain, nausea or "any symptoms similar to motion sickness." In addition, the device is not recommended for children younger than 13. Samsung also cautions, "Prolonged use should be avoided, as this could negatively impact hand-eye coordination, balance and multitasking ability," the lengthy disclaimer warns – and who reads the disclaimer!.
Samsung also says the device should not be used in a moving vehicle, although the Australian airline Qantas recently announced it will soon be providing the headsets to first-class passengers on flights.
Here’s the physical reality, people who are strapped into a fully occluded device cannot see anything around them – this creates obvious physical dangers. In addition, their eyes strain to focus on a pixelated screen that uses a single refractive optic element that inadequately addresses the issues with near-to-eye devices. Many headsets quickly become uncomfortable to the user after a few minutes.
Considering that a large percentage of people who experience and report stress or anxiety after wearing a full occlusion headset for more than a few minutes - great caution should prevail. Other negative physical side effects reported include: severe eyestrain, nausea, and motion sickness. Recent studies of lab rats at the UCLA Keck Center for Neurophysics have revealed negative side effects including "cybersickness" and abnormal patterns of activity in rat brains, including 60 percent of neurons that simply shut down in virtual reality environments.
In researching this topic especially regarding use by children, it was noted that the Environmental Health Trust recommends that schools forgo experimenting on their students with such wireless virtual reality systems and choose safe radiation-free non-wireless technology for classroom curriculum. Environmental Health Trust recommends Google halt the introduction of Google Expeditions Kits into Schools as no scientific evidence exists which demonstrates that such radiofrequency doses to children’s eyes are safe. It is EHT’s opinion that a virtual reality system that places a microwave emitting cell phone directly in front of a child’s eyes and brain could pose a serious health risk to students.
Success of VR will require hardware developers to focus on the human-machine interface, and determine how humans actually sense and process information which could lead to providing a comfortable viewing experience. If most early adopters of VR/AR have a harmful or negative experience, the industry could be setting itself up for a major setback that will be hard to recover from. Proper standards and procedures must be established now for both hardware and software manufacturers, before it is too late – Be AWARE!
- Environmental Health Hazards Staff
